excruciate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
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
-
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:
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
"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
“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
He was always pleasant, and he let me play on his guitar, though he swore it excruciated him.
From London Pride Or When the World Was Younger by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon
I have seen Lamb lately—Brown and I were taken by Hunt to Novello’s—there we were devastated and excruciated with bad and repeated puns—Brown don’t want to go again.
From Letters of John Keats to His Family and Friends by John Keats
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
After an excruciating decade, from the murder to the end of the trial, he somehow landed soundly as one of the most resilient people I’d ever met.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
She faced an excruciating decision familiar to many minority families: how to balance the cultural and social education they want for their children against the academic preparation they need.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
Charities step in to help some people leave on chartered planes, as well as via long, excruciating journeys on overcrowded trains and buses.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026
A teenage powerlifter managed to win double golds at a world championship despite her endometriosis flaring up to leave her in excruciating pain just before the competition.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
He grimaced as if in excruciating pain, sucked in air through his teeth, rubbed the elbow, and claimed he couldn’t use his arm for the remainder of the meal.
From "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
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.
