excruciate
/iks'kru:ʃieit/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Verb:
- To cause intense physical pain or suffering: To inflict severe physical torment or agony upon someone or something.
- To cause extreme mental or emotional anguish: To subject someone to severe psychological distress, torment, or torture.
Examples of Usage
- Verb:
- The medieval device was designed to excruciate its victims. (The device was built to inflict extreme physical pain.)
- Watching his dreams fail continued to excruciate him for years. (The failure caused him prolonged mental anguish.)
- The guilt over the mistake began to excruciate her conscience. (The feeling of guilt tortured her mind emotionally.)
Advanced Usage
- "to be excruciated by": to be tormented or made to suffer intensely by something.
- He was excruciated by doubts about his decision. (He was mentally tortured by his uncertainties.)
- Used in formal or literary contexts to describe extreme suffering, often more intense than simpler terms like "hurt" or "pain."
Variants and Related Words
- Excruciating (adj): Extremely painful or agonizing, either physically or mentally.
- She felt an excruciating pain in her leg.
- Excruciation (n): The state of experiencing excruciating pain; intense agony.
- The excruciation of the injury was unbearable.
Synonyms
- Torment: To cause severe suffering or anguish.
- Torture: To inflict severe physical or mental pain.
- Agonize: To suffer or cause to suffer extreme pain or distress.
- Rack: To cause extreme physical or mental pain (archaic).
Antonyms
- Soothe: To gently calm or relieve pain or distress.
- Comfort: To ease the grief or trouble of; to console.
- Pacify: To bring peace or calm; to soothe.
Related Phrases
- Excruciating detail: Extreme or painful thoroughness (often used figuratively).
- He described the accident in excruciating detail. (He described it with painful thoroughness.)
- While "excruciate" itself is not commonly used in phrasal verbs, its adjective form "excruciating" frequently modifies nouns like , , or to denote an extreme degree.
Verb
- subject to torture
- The sinners will be tormented in Hell, according to the Bible
- torment emotionally or mentally