throes

Noun (1)

throe (plural throes)

1. (error-lua-exec) A severe pang or spasm of pain, especially one experienced when the uterus contracts during childbirth, or when a person is about to die.
   • O man haue mind of that laſt bitter throw; / For as the tree does fall, ſo lyes it euer low.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 41, page 146
   1. (error-lua-exec, plural-normally) The pain of labour or childbirth; the suffering of death.
      • 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: […]1819 (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Masque of Anarchy. A Poem. […], London: Edward Moxon […], published 1832, →OCLC, stanzas XXXV–XXXVI, pages 18–19
2. Any severe pang or spasm, especially an outburst of feeling; a paroxysm.
   • Commend me to them, / And tell them, that to eaſe them of their greefes, / Their feares of Hoſtile ſtrokes, their Aches loſſes, / Their pangs of Loue, with other incident throwes / That Natures fragile Veſſell doth ſuſtaine / In lifes vncertaine voyage, I will ſome kindnes do them, […]c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
3. (figuratively, plural-normally) A hard struggle, especially one associated with the beginning or finishing of a task.
   • 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).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, archived from the original on 04 Mar 2021

Noun (2)

throe (plural throes)

1. (obsolete) Synonym of froe (“a cleaving tool for splitting cask staves and shingles from a block of wood”).

   Synonyms:

   frow, froe

See all 7 meanings of throe