| 释义 |
agonize, v.|ˈægənaɪz|
[prob. a. Fr. agonise-r or its original, the med.L. agonizā-re, ad. Gr. ἀγωνίζ-εσθαι, to contend in the agon, to struggle. The trans. use is however confined to Eng. and seems an independent application of the word, after the analogy of verbs in -ize from the Gr. active -ίζειν.]
1. trans. To subject to agony, to torture. Also absol.
1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. (1877) 72 And seyng her thus agonized..he demaunded of her the cause thereof. 1598Sylvester Du Bartas 823 Or whom some serpent's sting doth agonize. 1799Sheridan Pizarro iv. ii, The sharpest tortures that ever agonized the human frame. 1853Robertson Serm. Ser. iv. xvii. (1876) 220 This power of sin to agonize is traced to the law. 1856Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh vii. 173, I will not let thy hideous secret out To agonise the man I love.
2. intr. To suffer agony, to writhe in pain or anguish, to be in the throes of death. (From Fr.)
1664Evelyn Sylva (1776) 484 The Olive under which our blessed Saviour Agonized. 1732Pope Ess. on Man i. 198 To smart and agonize at ev'ry pore. 1762Falconer Shipwreck i. 74 Where dying victims agonize in pain. 1810T. Maurice Hist. Hindostan (1820) I. i. xiii. 519 The dreadful catastrophe in which nature agonized, and a world was destroyed.
3. intr. To contend in the arena; to struggle or strive in physical exercise; to wrestle. (In reference to orig. Gr. sense; also in med.L. and It.) Usually fig.
1711Shaftesbury Charact. (1737) III. 351 He agonizes, and with all his strength of reason endeavours to overcome himself. 1863W. Phillips Speeches xvi. 347 The nation agonizes this hour to recognize man as man. 1879Farrar St. Paul II. 123 [Paul] most earnestly entreats the Romans to agonise with him in their prayers to God.
4. fig. To make desperate or convulsive efforts for effect. Now freq. (colloq.), to worry intensely (over or about something); to struggle to reach a decision.
1865Athenæum No. 1966. 26/2 Every one who has no real fancy seems agonizing after originality. 1872G. Macdonald Wilf. Cumb. I. xv. 246, I might agonize in words for a day and I should not express the delight. 1946R. Graves Poems 1938–1945 25 When the pines agonized with flaws of wind And flowers glared up at her with frantic eyes. 1961Manas 5 Apr. 1/1 He is a Craig's wife who agonizes about tobacco ash on the living room rug. 1961Texas Studies Lit. & Lang. III. 281 Pip agonizes over the theft that his own hands have committed. 1969Word Study Oct. 7/2 My purpose here is not to agonize over a sorry past. 1973Times 24 May 8/6 Mr Hoover had troubles of his own while the White House was agonizing over the Pentagon Papers. 1983Listener 10 Feb. 9/3 We agonised for two seconds about whether to cast McGee, the Roman Catholic husband with ‘a little infection’, as a Martian. |
