Showing results for "throbbing"

• present participle of throb.

throbbing

American  

[throb-ing] / ˈθrɒb ɪŋ /

adjective

1. beating or pulsing rapidly or forcefully, as the heart under the influence of emotion or excitement.

   One may use a sweet, patient tone and words, but the throbbing vein in the temple betrays one’s anger.

2. feeling or exhibiting strong emotion or passion.

   As he spoke to the students crashing the climate convention, he was clearly thrilled to be there in that throbbing mass of youthful exuberance.

3. pulsating or vibrating regularly.

   The throbbing sound was now at full volume, and it was indeed drums—deep, heavy goatskin drums.

4. being or feeling pain that occurs in rhythmic waves or bursts.

   A sinus infection often results in a throbbing headache.

   He pounded on the closed door, but with no effect apart from a throbbing fist.

5. full of or characterized by lively energy.

   This throbbing metropolis is also the world capital of salsa.

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noun

throbbings plural

1. the act of beating fast or forcefully, pulsating or vibrating, or occurring in rhythmic waves.

   The pain in his shoulder had subsided to a dull throbbing.

   Astronomers have measured the throbbing of a sun-like star 24 light-years away.

2. the act or fact of feeling or exhibiting strong emotion or passion.

   The throbbing of my rage was so powerful that the ground trembled.

3. lively energy.

   Feel the throbbing of the world’s cultures at the annual international festival this weekend!

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unthrobbing
  adjective
• throbbingly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• throbbings
  plural

Etymology

Origin of throbbing

First recorded in 1400–50; throb ( def. ) + -ing ² ( def. ) for the adjective senses; throb ( def. ) + -ing ¹ ( def. ) for the noun senses

Explanation

If something's pulsing like a heartbeat, it's throbbing. When you stop and catch your breath after a long run, you might hear your throbbing pulse in your ears. An injury that's throbbing with pain pounds with regular beats: "I have a throbbing headache." Music is often described as throbbing too, beating and pounding with deep bass notes from a club or a car — or maybe your ceiling is vibrating with the throbbing music your upstairs neighbors are playing. To throb is to pulsate, and experts guess the word itself stems from the sound and feeling of pulsating blood.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

throbbing throbbings

That moment came in 2008, with a crash and a long, throbbing hangover.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026

The song holds next to none of the grinding desire throbbing through most of The Artist’s oeuvre.

From Salon ● Feb. 14, 2026

So what to do about your underwhelming past lovers, your Pisces Venusian yearning, your throbbing heart, your efforts to prepare yourself to love from the most whole place you possibly can?

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2026

The plastic symmetry of “Battleship Potemkin,” its humanity, and its throbbing power still command respect, and Sergei Eisenstein endures as the finest film editor the world has seen.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025

In the Jefferson-Madison collaboration, Madison was not just responsible for handling the messy particulars; he was also accountable for shielding his chief from the political ambitions throbbing away in his own soul.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

And her heart leaps suddenly; its tumultuous throbbings nearly suffocate her.

From Dangerous Ground or, The Rival Detectives by Lynch, Lawrence L.

Now it hurries again, as if these were its last throbbings, which it would fain beat out rapidly.

From The Dramatic Works of G. E. Lessing Miss Sara Sampson, Philotas, Emilia Galotti, Nathan the Wise by Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim

And as if the exuberance of the wish had started her old ailment into new vigor, she has clasped her hands wildly over that bosom, to stay, if it might be, those inordinate throbbings.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 95, September 1865 by Various

And was her mother not still young and beautiful--still now even, as she lay there with distorted features, with scorching breath, with violent throbbings of her pulses, in fevered dreams?

From Withered Leaves. Vol. II. (of III) A Novel by Gottschall, Rudolf von

Then where could Marjory go, in the midst of this confusion of gaiety?—where, as the poet says, "weep her woes" in secret, and listen to the throbbings of a broken heart?

From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 21 by Leighton, Alexander

Related Words

• agonizing
• arduous
• awful
• difficult
• dire
• distasteful
• distressing
• excruciating
• hard
• harrowing
• heart-wrenching
• hurtful
• severe
• tedious
• terrible
• troublesome
• uncomfortable
• unpleasant