- violent pains, especially at the moment of death
- The creature went into its death throes.
Oxford Collocations DictionaryThroes is used after these nouns:- death
Word OriginMiddle English throwe (singular); perhaps related to Old English thrēa, thrawu ‘calamity’, influenced by thrōwian ‘suffer’.
Idioms
See throes in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionaryin the throes of something/of doing something
- in the middle of an activity, especially a difficult or complicated one
- The country was in the throes of revolutionary change.
- We’re in the throes of moving to a new office, so the place is in chaos at the moment.
Check pronunciation:
throes