AGONISE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does agonise mean? 

• AGONISE (verb)
  The verb AGONISE has 2 senses:

1. cause to agonize

2. suffer agony or anguish

  Familiarity information: AGONISE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AGONISE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they agonise    ... he / she / it agonises   
Past simple: agonised   
Past participle: agonised   
-ing form: agonising   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cause to agonize

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

agonise; agonize

Hypernyms (to "agonise" is one way to...):

anguish; hurt; pain (cause emotional anguish or make miserable)

Cause:

agonise; agonize (suffer agony or anguish)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The bad news will agonise him

Derivation:

agony (intense feelings of suffering; acute mental or physical pain)

agony (a state of acute pain)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Suffer agony or anguish

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

agonise; agonize

Hypernyms (to "agonise" is one way to...):

suffer (experience (emotional) pain)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

agony (intense feelings of suffering; acute mental or physical pain)

agony (a state of acute pain)

 Context examples 

What agonising fondness did I feel for them!

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

We have had such an adventure, such an agonising experience.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It was the curse of mankind that these incongruous faggots were thus bound together—that in the agonised womb of consciousness, these polar twins should be continuously struggling.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

When at last he came to a stop, he gave one last agonised yell and then a long, whimpering wail.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

May you never appeal to Heaven in prayers so hopeless and so agonised as in that hour left my lips; for never may you, like me, dread to be the instrument of evil to what you wholly love.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

As I passed over he moved back, and his exclamation of horror, "Gott in Himmel!" needed no enforcement from his agonised face.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Nothing indeed could be more unfortunate and agonising than the strange chances that have lately occurred.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Unjust!—unjust! said my reason, forced by the agonising stimulus into precocious though transitory power: and Resolve, equally wrought up, instigated some strange expedient to achieve escape from insupportable oppression—as running away, or, if that could not be effected, never eating or drinking more, and letting myself die.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Lucy was full of pity, too, but she did not attempt to touch the dog, but looked at it in an agonised sort of way.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I was agonised with the idea of the possibility that the reverse of this might happen.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)