throe Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun severe spasm of pain
    • the throes of dying
    • the throes of childbirth
  2. noun hard or painful trouble or struggle
    • a country in the throes of economic collapse

WordNet

Throe noun
Etymology
OE. rowe, rave, AS. reá a threatening, oppression, suffering, perhaps influenced by Icel. ra a throe, a pang, a longing; cf. AS. reowian to suffer.
Definitions
  1. Extreme pain; violent pang; anguish; agony; especially, one of the pangs of travail in childbirth, or purturition.
    Prodogious motion felt, and rueful throes. Milton.
  2. A tool for splitting wood into shingles; a frow.
Throe intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To struggle in extreme pain; to be in agony; to agonize.
Throe transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To put in agony. R. Shak.

Webster 1913