v. [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.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus. (1877), 72. And seyng her thus agonized … he demaunded of her the cause thereof.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, 823. Or whom some serpent’s sting doth agonize.
1799. Sheridan, Pizarro, IV. ii. The sharpest tortures that ever agonized the human frame.
1853. Robertson, Serm., Ser. IV. xvii. (1876), 220. This power of sin to agonize is traced to the law.
1856. Mrs. 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.)
1664. Evelyn, Sylva (1776), 484. The Olive under which our blessed Saviour Agonized.
1732. Pope, Ess. on Man, I. 198. To smart and agonize at ev’ry pore.
1762. Falconer, Shipwreck, I. 74. Where dying victims agonize in pain.
1810. T. 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.
1711. Shaftesbury, Charact. (1737), III. 351. He agonizes, and with all his strength of reason endeavours to overcome himself.
1863. W. Phillips, Speeches, xvi. 347. The nation agonizes this hour to recognize man as man.
1879. Farrar, 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.
1865. Athenæum, No. 1966. 26/2. Every one who has no real fancy seems agonizing after originality.
1872. G. Macdonald, Wilf. Cumb., I. xv. 246. I might agonize in words for a day and I should not express the delight.
