- extreme physical or mental pain
- in agony Jack collapsed in agony on the floor.
- in an agony of something She waited in an agony of suspense.
- It was agony not knowing where the children were.
- The worst agonies of the war were now beginning.
- Tell me now! Don’t prolong the agony (= make it last longer).
- It is inhuman to keep a man facing the agony of execution for so long.
Extra ExamplesTopics Health problemsc1- The soldier died in agony.
- She mumbled an apology in an agony of embarrassment.
- They went through agony in the search for their missing relatives.
- The little creature squirmed in its death agonies.
- He endured agonies of loneliness and misery.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- excruciating
- extreme
- intense
- …
- endure
- go through
- suffer
- …
- in agony
- in an agony of
- a groan of agony
- a scream of agony
- groan in agony
- …
Word Originlate Middle English (originally denoting mental anguish alone): via Old French and late Latin from Greek agōnia, from agōn ‘contest’. The sense of physical suffering dates from the early 17th cent.
Idioms
See agony in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionarypile on the agony/gloom
- (especially British English, informal) to make an unpleasant situation worse
- Bosses piled on the agony with threats of more job losses.
Check pronunciation:
agony