Literary notes about Excruciating (AI summary)
Literary works frequently employ the term “excruciating” to heighten the reader's sense of acute suffering, whether manifesting in the searing physical pain of a headache [1] or the brutal torment of physical injuries and torture [2, 3, 4]. It is often used to evoke an almost overwhelming intensity—transforming a simple bodily ache into an ordeal that borders on the unbearable, as seen in the depiction of relentless grief [5, 6] or the prolonged agony of mental and emotional distress [7, 8]. This carefully chosen adjective not only intensifies the immediacy and realism of the depicted pain but also serves to draw readers more deeply into the character’s harrowing experiences [9, 10, 11].
- I had feverish dreams, unquiet slumbers, and woke at morning with an excruciating headache.
— from Confession; Or, The Blind Heart. A Domestic Story by William Gilmore Simms - Tacitus also describes the excruciating torments inflicted on the Roman Christians by Nero.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius - When he at last opened his eyes, he was conscious of nothing but an excruciating pain through his temples.
— from The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie - My left arm hung limply at my side and the pain in my dislocated shoulder was excruciating.
— from The Quest of the Sacred Slipper by Sax Rohmer - The old man sank down on his rude seat, and gave way to excruciating grief.
— from Wild Western Scenes A Narrative of Adventures in the Western Wilderness, Wherein the Exploits of Daniel Boone, the Great American Pioneer are Particularly Described by J. B. (John Beauchamp) Jones - Why, you have saved my life!—snatched me from a horrible and excruciating death!
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë - " After Miss Anthony returned home, outraged nature asserted itself and at every moment the pain in her back was excruciating.
— from The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) by Ida Husted Harper - Suffice it to say, it soon put an end to her life in the most excruciating manner.
— from The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 3 of 4 by American Anti-Slavery Society - She had known torture, but it had been swift, obliterating, excruciating.
— from A Modern Chronicle — Volume 08 by Winston Churchill - Then he understood that it must be in pain: pain so excruciating that he seemed, mysteriously, to feel it shooting through his own body.
— from Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton - " With my guru's words, the excruciating suffering left me.
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
