Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Intensely painful; agonizing.
  • adjective Very intense or extreme.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Extremely painful; torturing; tormenting.
  • Extremely precise or elaborate; extreme: as, excruciating politeness.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • Torturing; racking.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Causing great pain or anguish, agonizing
  • adjective Exceedingly intense; extreme

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective extremely painful

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Present participle of excruciate, from Latin excruciātus, past participle of excruciō, from ex- + cruciō "I torment".

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Examples

Comments

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  • extremely painful / uncomfortable

    November 20, 2007

  • Present Pain Intensity (PPI) intensity scale:

    No Pain, Mild, Discomforting, Distressing, Horrible, Excruciating.

    - Peter Reading, C, 1984

    July 4, 2008

  • There is something about killing people at close range that is excruciating. It's bound to try a man's soul.

    Steven Spielberg

    July 19, 2009