- the Inquisition[singular]
the organization set up by the Roman Catholic Church to punish people who opposed its beliefs, especially from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century （尤指 15 到 17 世纪天主教的）宗教裁判所，异端裁判所 - [countable] (formal or humorous)
a series of questions that somebody asks you, especially when they ask them in an unpleasant way 一连串的提问；（尤指）盘问，责难 She then subjected me to an inquisition about my romantic life. 然后她对我的浪漫生活进行了调查。
see also Spanish Inquisition
Word Originlate Middle English (denoting a searching examination): via Old French from Latin inquisitio(n-) ‘examination’, from the verb inquirere (based on quaerere ‘seek’).