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Meaning of Throe | Babel Free

Noun CEFR B1
θɹəʊ

Definitions

  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.
    error-lua-exec
  2. Synonym of froe (“a cleaving tool for splitting cask staves and shingles from a block of wood”).
  3. The pain of labour or childbirth; the suffering of death.
    error-lua-exec, plural-normally
  4. Any severe pang or spasm, especially an outburst of feeling; a paroxysm.
  5. A hard struggle, especially one associated with the beginning or finishing of a task.
    figuratively, plural-normally

Equivalents

العربية الألم
Български агонизирам агония
Suomi kouristus
Հայերեն երկունք

Examples

“O man haue mind of that laſt bitter throw; / For as the tree does fall, ſo lyes it euer low.”
“[Valerius] Cordus ſaith, that Iuncus bombicinus ſodden in wine, and ſo taken, helpeth the throwes and gripings of the bellie, that women haue in their childing.”
“[M]ine own entrails did sustain / Moan for my daughter's yet unended throes, […]”
“Penſive here I ſat / Alone, but long I ſat not, till my womb / Pregnant by thee, and now exceſſive grown / Prodigious motion felt and rueful throes.”
“Thus round her new fal'n Young, the Heifer moves, / Fruit of her Throes, and Firſt-born of her Loves, / And anxious, (helpleſs as he lies, and bare) / Turns, and returns her, with a Mother's Care.”
“In this Shape, or in that, has Fate entail'd / The Mother's Throws on all of Woman born, / Not more the Children, than ſure Heirs of Pain.”
“[W]e never know the full force of parental affection till our children are about to be taken from us. It is then that we discover how strongly they have entwined themselves round our hearts; when we behold the fixed eye, the pale lips, the convulsive throws of death distorting the countenance; or when with aching and throbbing hearts we deposit those who are a part of ourselves in the cold and silent grave.”
“Nature has her tortures as well as art, and how happy should we think the man who escapes from the throes of a mortal and painful disorder, in the space of a short half hour?”
“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: […]”
“Commend me to them, / And tell them, that to eaſe them of their greefes, / Their feares of Hoſtile ſtrokes, their Aches loſſes, / Their pangs of Loue, with other incident throwes / That Natures fragile Veſſell doth ſuſtaine / In lifes vncertaine voyage, I will ſome kindnes do them, […]”
“I had then ſuch Convulſions in my Stomach, for want of ſome Suſtenance, that I cannot deſcribe; with ſuch frequent Throws and Pangs of Appetite, that nothing but the Tortures of Death can imitate; […]”
“Seiz'd by the general joy, his heart diſtends / With gentle throws; […]”
“But ask thou not if Happiness be there, / If the loud laugh disguise convulsive throe, / Or if the brow the heart's true livery wear; […]”
“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).”

CEFR level

B1
Intermediate
This word is part of the CEFR B1 vocabulary — intermediate level.
See all B1 English words →

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