Throe

/θɹəʊ/ · noun

Meaning

A severe pang or spasm of pain, especially one experienced when the uterus contracts during childbirth, or when a person is about to die..

Definitions by Sense

1. A severe pang or spasm of pain, especially one experienced when the uterus contracts during childbirth, or when a person is about to die.
2. Any severe pang or spasm, especially an outburst of feeling; a paroxysm.
3. (figuratively, usually in the plural) A hard struggle, especially one associated with the beginning or finishing of a task.
4. (transitive) To cause (someone) to feel throes, as if in childbirth; to put in agony.
5. (intransitive) To feel throes; to struggle in extreme pain; to be in agony; to agonize.
6. Synonym of froe (“a cleaving tool for splitting cask staves and shingles from a block of wood”).

Example Sentences

O man haue mind of that laſt bitter throw; / For as the tree does fall, ſo lyes it euer low.

[Valerius] Cordus ſaith, that Iuncus bombicinus ſodden in wine, and ſo taken, helpeth the throwes and gripings of the bellie, that women haue in their childing.

[M]ine own entrails did sustain / Moan for my daughter's yet unended throes, […]

Penſive here I ſat / Alone, but long I ſat not, till my womb / Pregnant by thee, and now exceſſive grown / Prodigious motion felt and rueful throes.

Thus round her new fal'n Young, the Heifer moves, / Fruit of her Throes, and Firſt-born of her Loves, / And anxious, (helpleſs as he lies, and bare) / Turns, and returns her, with a Mother's Care.

In this Shape, or in that, has Fate entail'd / The Mother's Throws on all of Woman born, / Not more the Children, than ſure Heirs of Pain.

[W]e never know the full force of parental affection till our children are about to be taken from us. It is then that we discover how strongly they have entwined themselves round our hearts; when we behold the fixed eye, the pale lips, the convulsive throws of death distorting the countenance; or when with aching and throbbing hearts we deposit those who are a part of ourselves in the cold and silent grave.

Nature has her tortures as well as art, and how happy should we think the man who escapes from the throes of a mortal and painful disorder, in the space of a short half hour?

Synonyms for throe

Antonyms for throe

Related Words

Word Forms

• throes
• throw
• throeing
• throed

Usage Notes

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