throe

English

Etymology

From Middle English throwe, perhaps from Old English þrēa, thrawu (“threat”). This definition is lacking an etymology or has an incomplete etymology. You can help Wiktionary by giving it a proper etymology.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -əʊ
• Homophone: throw

Noun

throe (plural throes)

1. A pang, spasm.
   • 1819, Percy Shelley, The Masque of Anarchy:

     As if their own indignant Earth

     Which gave the sons of England birth

     Had felt their blood upon her brow,

     And shuddering with a mother's throe

     Had turned every drop of blood

     By which her face had been bedewed

     To an accent unwithstood, —

     As if her heart had cried aloud: [...]

2. A hard struggle.

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:agony
• See also Wikisaurus:pain

Derived terms

• in the throes of

Translations

severe spasm of pain, especially near the moment of death

• Dutch: stuiptrekking (nl)
• Russian: предсмертная (ru) (predsmertnaja) агония (ru) (agonija) f

Verb

throe (third-person singular simple present throes, present participle throeing, simple past and past participle throed)

1. (transitive) To put in agony.
   • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 2 scene 1

     SEBASTIAN:

     Prithee, say on:

     The setting of thine eye and cheek proclaim

     A matter from thee, and a birth, indeed

     Which throes thee much to yield.

2. (intransitive) To struggle in extreme pain; to be in agony; to agonize.

Translations

to put in agony

• Russian: вызывать агонию (vyzyvátʼ agóniju)n, терзать (ru) (terzátʼ) n

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

Anagrams

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