throe

English
WOTD – 31 January 2022

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

The noun is probably derived partly:[1]

The current spelling of the word is a 16th-century variant of Middle English throu, throwe, perhaps to avoid confusion with throw (“act of turning or twisting; fit of bad temper or peevishness; look of anger, bad temper, irritation, etc., a grimace”).[1]

The verb is derived:[4]

  • from the noun; and
  • perhaps from Middle English throuen (verb) (see above).

Noun

throe (plural throes)

  1. A severe pang or spasm of pain, especially one experienced when the uterus contracts during childbirth, or when a person is about to die.
    1. (usually in the plural) The pain of labour or childbirth; the suffering of death.
      • 1819 (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Masque of Anarchy. A Poem. […], London: Edward Moxon […], published 1832, →OCLC, stanzas XXXV–XXXVI, pages 18–19:
        As if their own indignant earth, / Which gave the sons of England birth, / Had felt their blood upon her brow, / And shuddering with a mother's throe, / Had turned every drop of blood, / By which her face had been bedewed / To an accent unwithstood, / As if her heart had cried aloud: […]
  2. Any severe pang or spasm, especially an outburst of feeling; a paroxysm.
  3. (figuratively, usually in the plural) A hard struggle, especially one associated with the beginning or finishing of a task.
    • 2019 August 14, A. A. Dowd, “Good Boys Puts a Tween Spin on the R-rated Teen Comedy, to Mostly Funny Effect”, in The A.V. Club‎, archived from the original on 4 March 2021:
      Of the group, Max (Room’s Jacob Tremblay) is the most nominally mature, at least biologically speaking; unlike his childhood companions, he’s entered the early throes of puberty, and spends a lot of his waking hours pining, rather chastely, for a classmate (Millie Davis).
Alternative forms
Derived terms
Translations
any severe pang or spasm; especially an outburst of feeling — see paroxysm
See also

Verb

throe (third-person singular simple present throes, present participle throeing, simple past and past participle throed) (obsolete)

  1. (transitive) To cause (someone) to feel throes, as if in childbirth; to put in agony.
  2. (intransitive) To feel throes; to struggle in extreme pain; to be in agony; to agonize.
Alternative forms
Translations
See also

Etymology 2

Perhaps a variant of froe.

Noun

throe (plural throes)

  1. Synonym of froe (“a cleaving tool for splitting cask staves and shingles from a block of wood”)
    Synonym: frow
Translations
synonym of froe — see froe

References
  1. “throe, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2021; “throes, plural n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. “throu, n.(2)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  3. “throuen, v.(2)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  4. “† throe, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2018.

Further reading

Anagrams
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