Throe

Quick meaning: Throe is a 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.

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.

More Meanings

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

Example Sentences

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

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

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.

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.

Word Forms

• throes
• throw
• throeing
• throed

Synonyms for throe

Depending on context, synonyms include afflict, torture, ache, aggrieve, agonize, anguish.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include pang, spasm, death-struggle, contraction, torment, strain.

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