anguish

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Severe pain or suffering of the mind or body.

   The parents waited in anguish for news of their missing child.

2. 2
   verb

   To suffer intense distress, or to cause someone such distress.

   She anguished over the difficult decision for weeks.

From Middle English angwissh, anguishe, angoise, from Anglo-Norman anguise, anguisse, from Old French angoisse, from Latin angustia (“narrowness, scarcity, difficulty, distress”), from angustus (“narrow, difficult”), from angere (“to press together, cause pain, distress”). See angst, the Germanic cognate, and anger.

Topics