excruciatingadj.
/ɛkˈskruːʃɪeɪtɪŋ/ a. That excruciates or causes extreme pain or anguish, whether bodily or mental; tormenting, torturing, agonizing. Const. to.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > types of pain > [adjective] > relating to agony or torment > causing agony or torment
sharpc1000
grievousc1290
smartc1300
fellc1330
unsufferablea1340
keena1375
poignantc1390
rending?c1400
furiousc1405
stoutc1425
unbearablec1449
agonizing1570
tormenting1575
cruciable1578
raging1590
tormentuous1597
pungent1598
racking1598
acute1615
wrenching1618
excruciating1664
grinding1681
excruciate1773
discruciating1788
unendurable1801
of bare sufferance1823
perialgic1893
1664 H. More Modest Enq. Myst. Iniquity xx. 75 The excruciating fear of a worse then Pagan Purgatory.
1770 O. Goldsmith Life Bolingbroke in Misc. Wks. (1895) 467/2 A cancer in his cheek, by which excruciating disease he died.
1791 J. Boswell Life Johnson anno 1756 I. 173 That most difficult and excruciating question, the Origin of Evil.
1833 I. Taylor Fanaticism vi. 179 Excruciating deaths; especially empalement or crucifixion.
1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps i. xxiii. 161 The biting of the hydrocarbons was excruciating to the eyes.
b. hyperbolically, in humorous use.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > state of annoyance or vexation > [adjective] > annoying or vexatious > extremely annoying
excruciating1819
1819 T. Campbell Specimens Brit. Poets III. 2 He [Drayton] is a less excruciating hunter of conceits [than Cowley].
1824 W. Irving Tales of Traveller I. 348 Blunders in sense and sound, that were excruciating to an author's ears.
1865 M. 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.
1876 C. M. Davies Unorthodox London (rev. ed.) 26 An excruciating chorus having been performed.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1894; most recently modified version published online December 2019).
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adj.1664