Showing results for "throbbing"

• present participle of throb.

throbbing

American  

[throb-ing] / ˈθrɒb ɪŋ /

adjective

1. beating or pulsing rapidly or forcefully, as the heart under the influence of emotion or excitement.

   One may use a sweet, patient tone and words, but the throbbing vein in the temple betrays one’s anger.

2. feeling or exhibiting strong emotion or passion.

   As he spoke to the students crashing the climate convention, he was clearly thrilled to be there in that throbbing mass of youthful exuberance.

3. pulsating or vibrating regularly.

   The throbbing sound was now at full volume, and it was indeed drums—deep, heavy goatskin drums.

4. being or feeling pain that occurs in rhythmic waves or bursts.

   A sinus infection often results in a throbbing headache.

   He pounded on the closed door, but with no effect apart from a throbbing fist.

5. full of or characterized by lively energy.

   This throbbing metropolis is also the world capital of salsa.

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noun

• throbbings
  plural

1. the act of beating fast or forcefully, pulsating or vibrating, or occurring in rhythmic waves.

   The pain in his shoulder had subsided to a dull throbbing.

   Astronomers have measured the throbbing of a sun-like star 24 light-years away.

2. the act or fact of feeling or exhibiting strong emotion or passion.

   The throbbing of my rage was so powerful that the ground trembled.

3. lively energy.

   Feel the throbbing of the world’s cultures at the annual international festival this weekend!

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unthrobbing
  adjective
• throbbingly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• throbbings
  plural

Etymology

Origin of throbbing

First recorded in 1400–50; throb ( def. ) + -ing ² ( def. ) for the adjective senses; throb ( def. ) + -ing ¹ ( def. ) for the noun senses

Explanation

If something's pulsing like a heartbeat, it's throbbing. When you stop and catch your breath after a long run, you might hear your throbbing pulse in your ears. An injury that's throbbing with pain pounds with regular beats: "I have a throbbing headache." Music is often described as throbbing too, beating and pounding with deep bass notes from a club or a car — or maybe your ceiling is vibrating with the throbbing music your upstairs neighbors are playing. To throb is to pulsate, and experts guess the word itself stems from the sound and feeling of pulsating blood.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

throbbing throbbings

Set to a throbbing synth bassline, the song teases fans by interpolating a line from her 1980s classic Into The Groove: "Out here on the dance floor, I feel so free."

From BBC ● Apr. 15, 2026

On “Anatomical Fable of the Elements,” atop a snaky bassline and a throbbing beat, Ms. Muldrow poses questions: “Is your nose witness to the sweet life?”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 4, 2026

So what to do about your underwhelming past lovers, your Pisces Venusian yearning, your throbbing heart, your efforts to prepare yourself to love from the most whole place you possibly can?

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2026

He is a throbbing mass of malevolence, turned up — to reference Reiner’s “This Is Spinal Tap” — to 11.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 17, 2025

Late at night, back at Uncle Thomas's house, both of us had a hard time sleeping, given the deep silence, which was punctuated only by cicadas throbbing in the trees.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

Yet, when the tyrant strives with outrage rude The unyielding maid in darkness to enclose, Then, only then, her burning heart outflows In anguished cries of love, but unsubdued By baser throbbings.

From Literary Tours in The Highlands and Islands of Scotland by Daniel Turner Holmes

It was her head that was full of throbbings and pulses, not her heart.

From Phoebe, Junior by Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant

Bichat shows, in his researches on life and death, how the black and carbonized blood disturbs the functions of the brain and acts like a narcotic poison, causing the heart finally to cease its throbbings.

From Martyria or Andersonville Prison by Augustus C. Hamlin

The arms were raised, half threateningly, half imploringly, and the lithe, vigorous form swayed in unison with the wild throbbings of a heart in which sated hate did mortal battle with outraged love.

From Stories by American Authors, Volume 10 by Various

I hoped that the gloved hand resting so near to it did not feel its throbbings, although they sounded in my ears like a hammer on an anvil.

From The Love Story of Abner Stone by Edwin Carlile Litsey

Related Words

• agonizing
• arduous
• awful
• difficult
• dire
• distasteful
• distressing
• excruciating
• hard
• harrowing
• heart-wrenching
• hurtful
• severe
• tedious
• terrible
• troublesome
• uncomfortable
• unpleasant