throe
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L28479 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /θɹəʊ/ / /θɹoʊ/
noun
Etymology: Perhaps a variant of froe.
- Synonym of froe (“a cleaving tool for splitting cask staves and shingles from a block of wood”).
verb
Etymology: The noun is probably derived partly: * from Middle English throu, throwe (“(chiefly in the plural) uterine contraction during the birth of a child; pain experienced while giving birth; suffering; a pain; emotional distress, anxiety”) [and other forms], perhaps from: ** Old English þrawu (rare), a variant of þrēa (“affliction, torment; disaster; oppression; a rebuke; severity; threat”), from Proto-West Germanic *þrau, from Proto-Germanic *þrawō (“longing; suffering”), from Proto-Indo-European *trewh₁-; and ** Old English þrōwian (“to endure, suffer”), from Proto-Germanic *þrōwijaną, probably from *þrawō (see above); and ** Old Norse þrá (“longing, yearning”), from Proto-Germanic *þrawō (see above); and * from Middle English throuen (“to endure distress, suffer; to be ill, to have a fever; to suffer (death, hardship, illness, punishment, etc.); to endure (sadness, hard work, etc.)”) [and other forms], from Old English þrōwian (see above). 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”). The verb is derived: * from the noun; and * perhaps from Middle English throuen (verb) (see above).
- To cause (someone) to feel throes, as if in childbirth; to put in agony.
“Pre-thee ſay on, / The ſetting of thine eye, and cheeke proclaime / A matter from thee; and a birth, indeed, / Which throwes thee much to yeeld.”
- To feel throes; to struggle in extreme pain; to be in agony; to agonize.
“[W]hile yet he gazed at the wonderful countenance, his memory began to throe and struggle.”