agonizing
[ag-uh-nahy-zing]
- accompanied by, filled with, or resulting in agony or distress: We spent an agonizing hour waiting to hear if the accident had been serious or not.
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Origin of agonizing
agonize
[ag-uh-nahyz]
- to suffer extreme pain or anguish; be in agony.
- to put forth great effort of any kind.
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- to distress with extreme pain; torture.
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Also especially British, ag·o·nise.
Origin of agonize
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
tortuousharrowingintenseexcruciatingtormentingdisturbingtorturingrackingstrugglingtearingextremefiercevehementviolentExamples from the Web for agonizing
Contemporary Examples
He makes his way, step by agonizing step, his face red and wheezing, his eyes straight ahead.
What followed was an agonizing spectacle that ended when Lockett died at 7.06 p.m.—43 minutes after the drugs began to flow.
Lethal Injection Leads to the Most Botched ExecutionsAustin Sarat, Robert Henry Weaver, Heather Richard
April 30, 2014
It catalogues a massive but doomed police investigation through its agonizing near-misses and mistaken hunches.
But it serves no one to perpetuate the idea that parenting is supposed to be an agonizing and thankless slog.
Ad's Message to Moms: If You Don’t Think Parenting Sucks, You’re Doing it WrongAndy Hinds
April 18, 2014
The opposition is afraid of the past because its revered members are culpable for some of the most agonizing memories it evokes.
Historical Examples
Take a very common instance of this agonizing incompatibility.
A Treatise on Parents and ChildrenGeorge Bernard Shaw
The thirst of the snow fields is most agonizing, and can only be likened to the thirst of the desert.
The Long Labrador TrailDillon Wallace
But where was the mother during these fearful and agonizing moments!
Nan, agonizing in her suspense, cried out she must join him and go with him if he went.
Nan of Music MountainFrank H. Spearman
The struggle was fearful and agonizing, but the victory triumphant.
Ernest LinwoodCaroline Lee Hentz
agonize
agonise
- to suffer or cause to suffer agony
- (intr) to make a desperate effort; struggle; strive
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Word Origin
C16: via Medieval Latin from Greek agōnizesthai to contend for a prize, from agōn agon
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for agonizing
agonize
v.
1580s, "to torture," from Middle French agoniser or directly from Medieval Latin agonizare, from Greek agonizesthai "to contend in the struggle" (see agony). Intransitive sense of "to suffer physical pain" is recorded from 1660s. That of "to worry intensely" is from 1853. Related: Agonized; agonizing.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper