in the throes

1. In the midst of, especially of a difficult struggle. For example, The country was in the throes of economic collapse, or We were in the throes of giving a formal dinner when my in-laws arrived. The noun throe, meaning “a severe pang or spasm of pain,” was at first used mainly for such physical events as childbirth or dying. Today it is used both seriously (first example) and more lightly (second example). [Mid-1800s]

Example Sentences

Caught in the throes of optoomuchism, people become convinced that nothing can go wrong.

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“Perhaps he is still in the throes of his moon-induced ‘condition.’

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The University of Southern California is in the throes of its most aggressive cost-cutting drive in memory — a grinding period of financial austerity that has shaken the university’s moneyed reputation and raised doubts among faculty and staff about the school’s ability to sustain itself as a top-tier institution.

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Late in Lynne Ramsay’s “Die My Love” — the latest film to mystifyingly leave out a much-needed comma from its title — Jennifer Lawrence’s Grace, a young mother in the throes of post-partum depression, raises a glass.

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Tech companies are in the throes of an unprecedented build-out of datacenter infrastructure in the U.S., the scale of which has raised concerns among some investors and industry executives about an AI bubble.

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