throe🔊

A severe pang or spasm of pain, especially one experienced when the uterus contracts during childbirth, or when a person is about to die.

(in the plural) The pain of labour or childbirth; the suffering of death.

Any severe pang or spasm, especially an outburst of feeling; a paroxysm.

(in the plural) A hard struggle, especially one associated with the beginning or finishing of a task.

To cause (someone) to feel throes, as if in childbirth; to put in agony. +

To feel throes; to struggle in extreme pain; to be in agony; to agonize. +

(t=a cleaving tool for splitting cask staves and shingles from a block of wood)