Other forms: interrogated, interrogating, interrogates
To interrogate is to question somebody hard and at length. Interrogate the suspect, interrogated for hours, interrogate the data.
It implies pressure, which is why police in Britain interview rather than interrogate — the word is used about them by other people. Interrogating data or a text means examining it closely, and that use is standard in research writing with no hostility at all. Note interrogation, interrogator; and interrogative, which in grammar names the question form and has nothing to do with pressure.
1verbinterrogateTo question somebody hard and at length.
“He was interrogated for about eleven hours.”
2verbexamineTo examine data or a text closely.
“Researchers interrogated the survey data to find out why sales had fallen.”
interrogate is a hard questioning.
inTERROGate → the TERROR in the room
They keep the light on him all night and ask the same question again and again, until the terror shows in his face and he says something.
hooks ontoterror
Latin interrogare is inter, between, plus rogare, to ask. The same rogare gives prerogative, surrogate and abrogate, and interrogating is asking back and forth.
Latin
interrogātus
English, today
interrogate
Latin interrogātus, the perfect passive participle of Latin interrogō (“to inquire, interrogate”), see -ate.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA