excruciate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to inflict severe pain upon; torture.
The headache excruciated him.
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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:
"You didn't excruciate my wrist so like time!" groaned Bill.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 83, September, 1864 by Various
"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 Jesse, William
"He will be vulgarly stuck up, and excruciate me with every French word he attempts to pronounce."
From Magnum Bonum by Yonge, Charlotte Mary
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 Thackeray, William Makepeace
“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 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 Keats, John
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 Braddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth)
Thus the Duke of Somerset goes to church, and finds an ignorant generation reposed in a paradise of illusions, while its more learned and thoughtful progeny is excruciated with doubt.
From The Christian Foundation, Or, Scientific and Religious Journal, Volume I, No. 9. September, 1880 by Walker, Aaron
"In the early stages, just a slight movement in bed would be excruciating pain," Hearn said.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
Plus, this excruciating level of oversight likely isn’t personal, says Tessa West, a psychology professor at New York University and the author of “Jerks at Work: Toxic Coworkers and What to Do About Them.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
Soraida's 44-year-old sister, Rosanna Luna, says not knowing what happened her sister is excruciating.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
While partying with the French isn’t the same as surviving the winter at Valley Forge, it did take a toll on Franklin, who suffered excruciating pain from gout.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
His agony and anguish rippled through my muscles and bones; for him, this division was surely just as excruciating.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
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.
