agonize
verb/ˈæɡənaɪz/
/ˈæɡənaɪz/
(British English also agonise)
[intransitive]Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they agonize | /ˈæɡənaɪz/ /ˈæɡənaɪz/ |
| he / she / it agonizes | /ˈæɡənaɪzɪz/ /ˈæɡənaɪzɪz/ |
| past simple agonized | /ˈæɡənaɪzd/ /ˈæɡənaɪzd/ |
| past participle agonized | /ˈæɡənaɪzd/ /ˈæɡənaɪzd/ |
| -ing form agonizing | /ˈæɡənaɪzɪŋ/ /ˈæɡənaɪzɪŋ/ |
- agonize (over/about something) to spend a long time thinking and worrying about a difficult situation or problem
- I spent days agonizing over whether to take the job or not.
Word Originlate 16th cent.: from French agoniser or late Latin agonizare, from Greek agōnizesthai ‘contend’, from agōn ‘contest’.Want to learn more?
Find out which words work together and produce more natural sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app.
Check pronunciation:
agonize