anguish

[ ang-gwish ]
See synonyms for anguish on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. excruciating or acute distress, suffering, or pain: the anguish of grief.

verb (used with object)
  1. to inflict with distress, suffering, or pain.

verb (used without object)
  1. to suffer, feel, or exhibit anguish: to anguish over the loss of a loved one.

Origin of anguish

1
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English anguisse, from Old French, from Latin angustia “tight place,” from angust(us) “narrow” + -ia -ia; cf. anxious

synonym study For anguish

1. See pain.

Other words for anguish

Opposites for anguish

Words Nearby anguish

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use anguish in a sentence

  • She suddenly sank back upon the pillow and gave up to bitter anguish, when she recalled what had followed.

    The Homesteader | Oscar Micheaux
  • Oddly enough, in that moment of anguish he thought of Hodson, the man who rode alone from Kurnaul to Meerut.

    The Red Year | Louis Tracy
  • The eyes of the Marchioness and her daughter met with an anguish of commiseration in each, neither of them could utter.

  • Her own wild imaginings made death seem preferable to the anguish of her belief that Frank had fallen.

    The Red Year | Louis Tracy
  • We have heard the fame thereof, our hands grow feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, as a woman in labour.

British Dictionary definitions for anguish

anguish

/ (ˈæŋɡwɪʃ) /


noun
  1. extreme pain or misery; mental or physical torture; agony

verb
  1. to afflict or be afflicted with anguish

Origin of anguish

1
C13: from Old French angoisse a strangling, from Latin angustia narrowness, from angustus narrow

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012