anguish
[ang-gwish]
- excruciating or acute distress, suffering, or pain: the anguish of grief.
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- to inflict with distress, suffering, or pain.
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- to suffer, feel, or exhibit anguish: to anguish over the loss of a loved one.
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Origin of anguish
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comSynonym study
1. See pain.
Antonyms
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for anguishing
Contemporary Examples
For all its anguishing, the Court is actually a bit-player here.
But there's a serious point here, and it extends well beyond the anguishing question of sexual assault.
I think what we have seen in terms of gay teenagers committing suicide because of bullying is anguishing.
Historical Examples
And, most anguishing of all, there was no chance that there was a mistake.
The Road to UnderstandingEleanor H. Porter
The wild steed sought to fling up his head to shake off this anguishing weight of seventy odd pounds.
Buff: A Collie and other dog-storiesAlbert Payson Terhune
An anguishing desire for the safe and wholesome Present usurped all this mad yearning to obtain the Past.
Incredible AdventuresAlgernon Blackwood
We resumed our seats, but had hardly done so, when a deep and most anguishing groan was heard, that pierced our very hearts.
Our audiences, as you will have gathered, were often critical folk who could sit with dry eyes through our most anguishing scenes.
The Secrets of a SavoyardHenry A. Lytton
anguish
- extreme pain or misery; mental or physical torture; agony
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- to afflict or be afflicted with anguish
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Word Origin
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
Word Origin and History for anguishing
anguish
n.
c.1200, "acute bodily or mental suffering," from Old French anguisse, angoisse "choking sensation, distress, anxiety, rage," from Latin angustia (plural angustiae) "tightness, straitness, narrowness;" figuratively "distress, difficulty," from ang(u)ere "to throttle, torment" (see anger (v.)).
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anguish
v.
early 14c., intransitive and reflexive; mid-14c., transitive, from Old French anguissier (Modern French angoisser), from anguisse (see anguish (n.)). Related: Anguished; anguishing.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper