Torturous Punishments in History

Can you name these horrific methods and contraptions given their description? Some of these answers will require you to add the word 'torture' after them to get the point!
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whatamidoinghere
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Last updated: March 16, 2025
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First submittedFebruary 5, 2025
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Hint
Answer
A form of torture from Asia where a victim is tied over ______, which is known to grow very fast, and slowly impales them
Bamboo Torture
Was possibly used by Vikings where the ribs are severed from the spine and then the lungs are pulled out of the cavity to appear as a pair of wings
Blood Eagle
A form of torture where a victim is placed in a giant pot of water or oil before slowly increasing the temperature
Boiling
An elaborate tool of torture, designed in ancient Greece, where the victim is put into something that resembles a certain animal and the said statue is then placed over a fire, cooking the victim -- piping is put into the tool to make the screams sound like the animal's cry
Brazen Bull
A wheel that the victim has dropped onto them while they are bound, then they are bonded to the wheel where they are then beaten or burned
Breaking Wheel
An instrument of torture used on specifically women, targeting female specific body parts, and ripping them off -- This was done typically to women with 'negative attributes'
Breast Ripper
Often, the official cause of death is suffocation due to being buried with no oxygen left to breathe
Burying Alive
Was created with the purpose of shocking livestock to move, also used to send a painful electric shock to its victim
Cattle Prod
The removal of the testicles
Castration
Famously used by mafias and gangs where the victim would have their feet secured and weighed down by cement before they are dropped into a lake to drown
Cement Shoes
A process in which cold water is dripped onto the victim's head/forehead for a long time, causing a great amount of mental torment (Hint: Known for being used in China)
Chinese Water Torture
A device of torture that was inserted in the mouth, female genitalia, or rectum and expanded to mutilate the victim
Choke Pear
The punishment Jesus was famously subjected to
Crucifixion
A punishment where the victim would be under a great amount of weight that would slowly increase -- This would often be done to draw out a confession
Crushing
The removal of the victim's organs through a cut made in the abdomen
Disembowelment
Where the victim is unable to get oxygen due to being submerged in water
Drowning
Was often a punishment for women who were 'disorderly' or to make them confess to witchcraft where the woman is bound to a chair that is then submerged in water
Dunking
The painstaking removal of the victim's skin
Flaying
Roasting the foot -- The most simple wat to put it
Foot Roasting
A punishment that can only be described as 'overkill' where the victim is put through essentially three punishments, ending with their limbs removed, notably by tying the limbs to different horses and having them run in opposite directions, taking the limb with them
Hanging, Drawing, and Quartering
It crushed heads -- the name is really simple...
Head Crusher
One of the most famous in appearance, it is a coffin/cabinet with spikes inside to possibly impale the victim (Hint: shares the name of a famous metal band)
Iron Maiden
Victims were made to side on a chair, but instead of sitting on a flat surface, they would sit on a sharp point, often strapped to the chair and possibly made to wear weights to increase the pain
Judas Cradle
A punishment given to sailors where the victim would be bound to a long rope and dragged underwater along the bottom side of the ship, cut up by the barnacles -- This would be likely repeated until they drown or die of their injuries
Keelhauling
A framework where the head and hands are bound in a post that is meant for public humiliation
Pillory
The victim, usually found guilty of parricide, is sewn in a leather sack with a dog, snake, monkey, and a rooster and then tossed into a river
Poena Cullei
One of the most famous torture tools where the victim is laid across a board with all four of their limbs tied, they are then slowly stretched from their hands and feet possibly until their limbs separated from their body
Rack
The act of removing the top of the head, revealing the skull
Scalping
The victim is trapped between two boats the size of their body, with only their head and limbs exposed -- They'd be fed and slathered with honey so that they would be slowly eaten alive by insects and other wildlife
Scaphism
A tool of humiliating torture, done to women who were said to gossip, where they are muzzled by an iron cage fitted on the head, where the woman is unable to remove it
Scold's Bridle
The victim is kept awake, leading to a decline in health and cognition
Sleep Deprivation
The victim is exposed to painful and damaging levels of noise
Sound Torture
The use of a boot where it is designed to crush the foot, squeezing being one of the most common ways the bones are crushed
Spanish Boot
The victim is left without food, leading to a slow and very painful death
Starvation
Used for restraining specifically the feet for public humiliation
Stocks
A group of people, often the public, throws stones at the bound victim until the victim dies due to blunt force trauma
Stoning
The compressing/enclosing of the airways than often knocked victims unconcious
Strangling
When a victim is hoisted in the air, hanging by their wrists behind their back -- Made for pain from the dislocated shoulders and for public humiliation
Strappado
When the victim is placed in an uncomfortable position of submission
Stress Positions
The victims is forced to drink a rather foul drink -- Invented during the Thirty Years War by the Germans who were subject to it by the Swedes
Swedish Drink
A form of public torture and humiliation where the victim is stripped down, covered in tar and then has feathers thrown on them
Tarring and Feathering
A type of torture that makes the victim laugh excessively due to the sensativity to the touch
Tickle Torture
The removal of the victim's tooth to cause excruciating pain
Tooth Extraction
A form of torture where the victim is forced to drink excessive quantities of water at once, leading to water poisoning
Water Cure
Water is poured over a cloth on the victim's face to simulate actual drowning (Hint: The CIA lovveeedddd to use this)
Waterboarding
Where the victim is struck with something that resembles a cord repeatedly, often on their back and/or buttocks
Whipping
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2 Comments
+1
Level 59
Mar 13, 2025
That's not how you spell "crucifixion"
+1
Level 42
Mar 16, 2025
Thanks for letting me know! Fixed it.