Chinese water torture

Definitions

1. 1

   A form of torture in which water is repetitively dripped onto the forehead of a victim…

   A form of torture in which water is repetitively dripped onto the forehead of a victim who is restrained.

   • It has come to be known as Chinese water torture, but was actually invented by a sixteenth-century Italian lawyer named Hippolytus de Marsiliis.
   • The plunk of the keys was beginning to feel like Chinese water torture, each note a painful drip. Is that a real thing? Chinese water torture, I mean.
2. 2

   Any repeated irritation that builds to deliver cumulative damage.

   • The growth of subsidies is a Chinese water torture on individual liberty.
   • Compared to Hansen's own blitzkrieg appointment, it was a drawn-out affair, like some kind of political Chinese water torture.

The neighborhood