agonized

adjective

ag·​o·​nized ˈa-gə-ˌnīzd 

: characterized by, suffering, or expressing agony

Synonyms

• aching
• anguished
• bemoaning
• bewailing
• bitter
• deploring
• doleful
• dolesome
• dolorous
• funeral
• grieving
• heartbroken
• lamentable
• lugubrious
• mournful
• plaintive
• plangent
• regretful
• rueful
• sorrowful
• sorry
• wailing
• weeping
• woeful

Examples of agonized in a Sentence

an agonized cry of despair

one look at his agonized, tearful eyes and it was clear that something was terribly wrong

Recent Examples on the Web

This time, Trump was not the subject of agonized debate among the billionaires. —Susan B. Glasser, The New Yorker, 18 Oct. 2024

David Foster Wallace’s titular Depressed Person dwindles into existential nothingness, a speck of dust in the vacuum of her agonized solipsism. —Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker, 25 Sep. 2024

There’s ongoing catharsis in the powerful expression of this sometimes personally agonized material, whoever wrote all of it, as the sing-and scream-alongs would indicate. —Chris Willman, Variety, 13 Sep. 2024

Researchers suggest that the woman may have been afflicted by a rare muscle reaction at the moment of death that immortalized her agonized expression. —Margherita Bassi, Smithsonian Magazine, 2 Aug. 2024

Word History

Etymology

from past participle of agonize

First Known Use

1583, in the meaning defined above