Anguishes

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. To impose overwhelming sorrow or distress on someone, leading to considerable mental or physical suffering; to experience significant emotional turmoil that disrupts normal life; to feel an intense burden of pain that leads to a state of unrest
2. To inflict deep suffering or torment upon a person ; To endure profound sorrow or mental or physical agony
3. To bring about great mental or emotional distress in someone ; To experience intense psychological or emotional suffering

Etymology: "Anguishes" is simply the plural of the noun "anguish" (and also the third-person singular of the verb). The noun traces back to Latin "angustia," meaning "narrowness" or "difficulty," built on "angustus" ("narrow") and "angere," "to press together." The original picture is physical: something squeezed tight. The Latin sense of distress or hardship grew from that image of being hemmed in. The word passed into English through Old French "angoisse," which carried the same sense of pain and hardship, and it arrived in Middle English as "angwissh" and "anguishe," with Anglo-Norman forms along the way. The verb followed from the same French root: "angoissier" gave rise to the Middle English verb "angwischen" and its variants, so the verb and noun are close relatives in English. The word is related to "anger" and to "angst," which shares the same Germanic and Indo-European background. The shared core of pressing and tightness connects the mental torment of anguish with the physical sense of being squeezed.

Synonyms: suffering, distress, torment, pain, anguish

Antonyms: comfort, relief, ease, solace, contentment