agonal

Adjective

agonal (comparative more agonal, superlative most agonal)

1. Of or pertaining to struggle, competition or conflict; of or pertaining to an agon.
   • Even the agonal games which began with the ancient Greeks were playful in their singular devotion to deities. Games were agonal demonstrations of transcendence.1994, Edward Kuhlman, Agony in Education: The Importance of Struggle in the Process of Learning, Bergin & Garvey, page 70
   • The agonal spirit was strong enough to inspire 'shame' at a failure to fight when the enemy offered battle, but not so strong that it made armies accept battle under any circumstances.2004, Hans van Wees, Greek Warfare: Myth and Realities, Bloomsbury Academic, page 135
2. Of or pertaining to the pain of death.
   • The similarity of these persistent invaginations to the agonal is quite marked; like the agonal, they are multiple, rather short, they are in the ileum, and they are ascending, which is not at all an uncommon feature of the invaginations of death. Agonal invaginations in the adult are, however...1894, Ludvig Hektoen, “A Specimen of Four Healed, Ascending, Ileal Invaginations, Symmetrical and Equidistant”, in Judson Daland, Joseph Price Tunis, Boardman Reed, Walter Lytle Pyle, editors...
   • In contrast, severe infections are characterized by the development of hypoglycemia during the agonal stages of the disease process as a result of an impaired capacity of the liver to synthesize glucose (LaNoue et al., 1968b; Yeung, 1970; McCallum and Berry, 1973).1981, Michael C. Powanda, Peter G. Canonico, Infection: the Physiologic and Metabolic Responses of the Host, Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press, page 117