Definitions

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

  • noun A sudden sharp bodily pain: synonym: pain.
  • noun A sudden sharp feeling of emotional distress.
  • intransitive verb To feel sharp bodily pains.
  • intransitive verb To feel pangs of distress.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To cause to suffer a pang or pangs; pain; torture.
  • To press; cram, in any way; cram with food.
  • noun A sudden paroxysm of pain; a transitory or recurring attack of agony; an acute painful spasm; a throe; hence, a sudden and bitter sentiment of sorrow, disappointment, injury, etc.
  • noun Synonyms Anguish, Torture, etc. (see agony), twinge, gripe, ache, suffering.

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

  • noun A paroxysm of extreme pain or anguish; a sudden and transitory agony; a throe.
  • transitive verb rare To torture; to cause to have great pain or suffering; to torment.

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

  • noun often pluralized paroxysm of extreme physical pain or anguish; sudden and transitory agony;throe
  • noun often pluralized A sharp, sudden feeling of a mental or emotional nature, as of joy or sorrow
  • verb transitive to torment; to torture; to cause to have great pain or suffering

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

  • noun a sharp spasm of pain
  • noun a mental pain or distress
  • noun a sudden sharp feeling

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English *pange, an altered form of prange, pronge ("pang, throe, stab etc.")

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Examples

  • The pang is over, his sufferings are at an end for ever.

    Chapter 7 2010

  • I tried to sway her by employing a string of Chinese proverbs, the expression pang guang zhe qing, or “the bystander sees more clearly” being a case in point.

    THE GODDESS AND THE 36TH STRATEGEM philip j cunningham 2009

  • I tried to sway her by employing a string of Chinese proverbs, the expression pang guang zhe qing, or “the bystander sees more clearly” being a case in point.

    Archive 2009-05-29 philip j cunningham 2009

  • Julia felt a certain pang at the thought of judgment being passed so lightly upon all those months or years of hard authorial labour.

    Books and Television « So Many Books 2006

  • That grief – the one great grief of their life, had come to her more wholesomely than to her husband: either because men, the very best of men, can only suffer, while women can endure; or because in the mysterious ordinance of nature Maud's baby lips had sucked away the bitterness of the pang from the bereaved mother, while her loss was yet new.

    John Halifax, Gentleman 1897

  • Destruction waits on all who would steal one pang from the racked heart of William Wallace!

    The Scottish Chiefs 1875

  • Its pang is short-lived, and the face of the field-cornet soon lightens up again as he looks around upon his dear children, so full of hope and promise.

    Popular Adventure Tales Mayne Reid 1850

  • Its pang is short-lived, and the face of the field-cornet soon lightens up again as he looks around upon his dear children, so full of hope and promise.

    The Bush Boys History and Adventures of a Cape Farmer and his Family Mayne Reid 1850

  • It gave him, he said in Parliament, a deep pang; and, as he uttered the word pang, his lip quivered, his voice shook, he paused, and his hearers thought that he was about to burst into tears.

    Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches — Volume 3 Thomas Babington Macaulay Macaulay 1829

  • "I do not fear to die," she said; "that pang is past.

    Chapter 8 2010

Comments

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  • This is the word used for a gunshot in my German translation of a Tin Tin story (Der blaue Lotos).

    April 8, 2008