from a derivative of 5180 (meaning a drum, "tympanum");
AV - torture 1; 1
1) to beat the drum or timbrel
2) to torture with the tympanum, an instrument of punishment
The tympanum seems to have been a wheel shaped instrument of torture, over which criminals were stretched as though they were skins and then horribly beaten with clubs or thongs (cf our "break upon the wheel")