throe
UK /θɹəʊ/ · US /θɹoʊ/ noun, verb
Forms throes throeing throed throw
- noun A severe pang or spasm of pain, especially one experienced when the uterus contracts during childbirth, or when a person is about to die.
- noun (usually in the plural) The pain of labour or childbirth; the suffering of death.
- noun Any severe pang or spasm, especially an outburst of feeling; a paroxysm.
- noun (figuratively, usually in the plural) A hard struggle, especially one associated with the beginning or finishing of a task.
- verb (transitive) To cause (someone) to feel throes, as if in childbirth; to put in agony.
- verb (intransitive) To feel throes; to struggle in extreme pain; to be in agony; to agonize.
- noun Synonym of froe (“a cleaving tool for splitting cask staves and shingles from a block of wood”).
Synonyms
afflict torture ache aggrieve agonize anguish dere excruciate hurt irritate pang pine rack torment wring thole pain passion suffer wark
Etymology
The noun is probably derived partly:
* from Middle English throu, throwe (“(chiefly in the plural) uterine contraction during the birth of a child; pain experienced while giving birth; suffering; a pain; emotional distress, anxiety”) [and other forms], perhaps from:
** Old English þrawu (rare), a variant of þrēa (“affliction, torment; disaster; oppression; a rebuke; severity; threat”), from Proto-West Germanic *þrau, from Proto-Germanic *þrawō (“longing; suffering”), from Proto-Indo-European *trewh₁-; and
** Old English þrōwian (“to endure, suffer”), from Proto-Germanic *þrōwijaną, probably from *þrawō (see above); and
** Old Norse þrá (“longing, yearning”), from Proto-Germanic *þrawō (see above); and
* from Middle English throuen (“to endure distress, suffer; to be ill, to have a fever; to suffer (death, hardship, illness, punishment, etc.); to endure (sadness, hard work, etc.)”) [and other forms], from Old English þrōwian (see above).
The current spelling of the word is a 16th-century variant of Middle English throu, throwe, perhaps to avoid confusion with throw (“act of turning or twisting; fit of bad temper or peevishness; look of anger, bad temper, irritation, etc., a grimace”).
The verb is derived:
* from the noun; and
* perhaps from Middle English throuen (verb) (see above).
Perhaps a variant of froe.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Extreme pain; violent pang; anguish; agony; especially, one of the pangs of travail in childbirth, or purturition.
- noun A tool for splitting wood into shingles; a frow.
- verb To struggle in extreme pain; to be in agony; to agonize.
- verb To put in agony. [R.] Shak.
Etymology [OE. , , AS. a threatening, oppression, suffering, perhaps influenced by Icel. a throe, a pang, a longing; cf. AS. to suffer.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “throe”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details