agonize

Verb

agonize (third-person singular simple present agonizes, present participle agonizing, simple past and past participle agonized)

1. (intransitive) To writhe with agony; to suffer violent anguish.
   • His Touch, if tremblingly alive all o’er, / To smart, and agonize at ev’ry pore?1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], epistle I, London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC, page 13, lines 223–24

   Synonyms:

   ache, hurt, anguish, pain, passion, suffer, thole, throe, wark, wring

2. (intransitive, literary) To struggle; to wrestle; to strive desperately, whether mentally or physically.
   • So I took a last stare round, agonizing to see if there was any way of escape; but the stone walls and roof were solid enough to crush me, and the stack of casks too closely packed to hide more than a rat.[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   fret

3. (transitive) To cause agony or anguish in someone.
   • That dreadful bill […] was one of the chief torments of her life. At all hours of the night or day it was waiting just round the corner of her consciousness, ready to spring upon her and agonise her […]1935, George Orwell, A Clergyman’s Daughter, page 8

   Synonyms:

   afflict, torment, ache, aggrieve, anguish, dere, excruciate, hurt, irritate, pang

4. (transitive) To act as an agonist upon; to combine with a receptor on a cell to produce a physiological reaction.