1. Word finder
  2. Word definitions
  3. agonize

Find the word definition

What is "agonize"

Crossword clues for agonize

agonize
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
agonize
verb
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Did a college student serious about building his future at once have to agonize over his future?
▪ I loved him at the beginning and could not hate him later - even when he was agonizing everyone.
▪ In one issue, Slepian agonizes over buying a $ 7, 000 hot tub.
▪ It wouldn't do, I thought, to agonize or weep, or be embarrassing or cheap.
▪ We have agonized over and over again about our relatively small oil business.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Agonize

Agonize \Ag"o*nize\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Agonized; p. pr. & vb. n. Agonizing.] [F. agoniser, LL. agonizare, fr. Gr. ?. See Agony.]

  1. To writhe with agony; to suffer violent anguish.

    To smart and agonize at every pore.
    --Pope.

  2. To struggle; to wrestle; to strive desperately.

Agonize

Agonize \Ag"o*nize\, v. t. To cause to suffer agony; to subject to extreme pain; to torture.

He agonized his mother by his behavior.
--Thackeray.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
agonize

1580s, "to torture," from Middle French agoniser or directly from Medieval Latin agonizare, from Greek agonizesthai "contend in the struggle" (see agony). Intransitive sense of "suffer physical pain" is recorded from 1660s; that of "to worry intensely" is from 1853. Related: Agonized; agonizing.

Wiktionary
agonize

vb. 1 (context intransitive English) To writhe with agony; to suffer violent anguish. 2 (context intransitive English) To struggle; to wrestle; to strive desperately.

WordNet
agonize

  1. v. cause to agonize [syn: agonise]

  2. suffer agony or anguish [syn: agonise]

Usage examples of "agonize".

It was not at the agonized contortions and posturing of the wretched boy that he was shocked, but at the cosmic obscenity of these beings which could drag to light the abysmal secrets that sleep in the unfathomed darkness of the human soul, and find pleasure in the brazen flaunting of such things as should not be hinted at, even in restless nightmares.

She chose breath over sight and grabbed the aerator, quenching her agonized lungs even as the high-tech optics were torn off her head, turning everything black.

His breath possessed her mouth, moving in and out in agonizing pulses.

I seem to remember that once the West Lighthouse was right under me, and then there was a sort of agonizing feeling, as if I were in an earthquake, and I came back and found you shaking my body.

Here, he is living on borrowed time and, soon or late, will suffer a long, agonizing, messy death.

A sudden, agonizing fiery ball of pain shot through him, choking his words, making him stagger slightly.

To ease his agonizing guilt, he needed to punish himself, she realized.

After eight long years of pain and fear, she now knew why her body turned traitor on her, beginning with an overwhelming arousal and ending with a bleak, almost agonizing pain before slowly diminishing.

An agonizing pleasure that she knew she would soon be helpless against.

The agonizing pain would soon be ripping through her womb as her body fought to conceive.

I had to stand and watch my twin sister, half dead already after months of torture, die a slow and agonizing death.

It came out of nowhere, fed on whispers, and took the innocent and the guilty alike into agonizing darkness.

This kind of work, particularly in the early stages of a difficult cryptanalysis, is perhaps the most excruciating, exasperating, agonizing mental process known to man.

Ariana absently rubbed her stomach, her mind agonizing over what viciousness Grader had in store for her now.

The exact position and dimensions of the excavation were relayed to the icebreakers and the Hawkbill, then the containment booms were slowly cinched together with agonizing slowness to avoid losing any portion of the trapped surface water.