| 释义 |
excruciating, ppl. a.|ɛkˈskruːʃɪeɪtɪŋ|
[f. prec. + -ing2.]
That excruciates or causes extreme pain or anguish, whether bodily or mental; tormenting, torturing, agonizing. Const. to.
1664H. More Myst. Iniq. xx. 75 The excruciating fear of a worse then Pagan Purgatory. 1770Goldsm. Life Bolingbroke Wks. (Globe) 467/2 A cancer in his cheek, by which excruciating disease he died. 1791Boswell Johnson an. 1756 (1831) I. 299 That most difficult and excruciating question, the Origin of Evil. 1833I. Taylor Fanat. vi. 179 Excruciating deaths; especially empalement or crucifixion. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. xxiii. 161 The biting of the hydrocarbons was excruciating to the eyes.
b. hyperbolically, in humorous use.
1819Campbell Spec. Brit. Poets III. 2 He [Drayton] is a less excruciating hunter of conceits [than Cowley]. 1824W. Irving T. Trav. I. 348 Blunders in sense and sound, that were excruciating to an author's ears. 1865M. E. Braddon Only a Clod i. 6 If there's one thing in the world that's more excruciating than another, it's that fellow's cheerfulness. 1876C. M. Davies Unorth. Lond. 26 An excruciating chorus having been performed. |