excruciate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to inflict severe pain upon; torture.
The headache excruciated him.
-
to cause mental anguish to; irritate greatly.
verb
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to inflict mental suffering on; torment
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obsolete to inflict physical pain on; torture
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of excruciate
1560–70; < Latin excruciātus, past participle of excruciāre to torment, torture, equivalent to ex- ex- 1 + cruciāre to torment, crucify (derivative of crux cross); see -ate 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"He will be vulgarly stuck up, and excruciate me with every French word he attempts to pronounce."
From Magnum Bonum by Charlotte Mary Yonge
"And your bilious eyes and eyelids full of crows' feet, and the gout and the rheumatism which excruciate you?—those horrid spiders which are weaving their threads in the muscles of your calves?"
From Le Morvan, [A District of France,] Its Wild Sports, Vineyards and Forests; with Legends, Antiquities, Rural and Local Sketches by William Jesse
Her presence used to excruciate Osborne; but go she would upon all parties of pleasure on which she heard her young friends were bent.
From Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
"You didn't excruciate my wrist so like time!" groaned Bill.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 83, September, 1864 by Various
“Zama,” a brief, indelible novel by the Argentinean writer Antonio Di Benedetto, is a work of waiting—of enforced lassitude, excruciated anticipation, and final frustration.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 15, 2017
The speaker is Tithonus himself, in love with Dawn but excruciated to be held captive to yet another day.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 5, 2016
I must leave off writing; I am excruciated with the toothache, which has tormented me without respite all day.
From Records of a Girlhood by Fanny Kemble
I spent, however, last June there, and was less excruciated than I feared.
From The Letters of Henry James (volume I) by Henry James
"Upon my soul and body, this here stooping do fairly make my back open and shut!" he exclaimed, straightening himself slowly with an excruciated look till quite upright.
From Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
I've been struggling with a condition called trigeminal neuralgia, external that causes excruciating pain like an electric shock across the side of my face, which can stop me from speaking, eating or drinking.
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
This comes after the club slogged to first place last year with a nail-biting mix of narrow victories and excruciating defense.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
Teenage athlete Dennis Castillo spent 28 excruciating hours trapped under the rubble in quake-hit Venezuela, with a beam crushing her left leg as she waited to be rescued.
From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026
The wait for the Dodger Stadium Express or a rideshare pickup, and the slog out of the stadium and along Sunset Boulevard, can be excruciating.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2026
And it shows for the duration of all six excruciating innings.
From "Fast Pitch" by Nic Stone
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
