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throe

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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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]

Noun

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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[1], 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).
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Derived terms
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See also
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Verb

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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.
    Synonyms: afflict, torture; see also Thesaurus:hurt
  2. (intransitive) To feel throes; to struggle in extreme pain; to be in agony; to agonize.
    Synonyms: ache, thole; see also Thesaurus:suffer
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Etymology 2

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Perhaps a variant of froe.

Noun

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throe (plural throes)

  1. Synonym of froe (a cleaving tool for splitting cask staves and shingles from a block of wood)
    Synonym: frow
Translations
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References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 throe, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required, Oxford: 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: Oxford University Press, September 2018.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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