excruciate

"He will be vulgarly stuck up, and excruciate me with every French word he attempts to pronounce."

From Magnum Bonum by Charlotte Mary Yonge

"And your bilious eyes and eyelids full of crows' feet, and the gout and the rheumatism which excruciate you?—those horrid spiders which are weaving their threads in the muscles of your calves?"

From Le Morvan, [A District of France,] Its Wild Sports, Vineyards and Forests; with Legends, Antiquities, Rural and Local Sketches by William Jesse

"You didn't excruciate my wrist so like time!" groaned Bill.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 83, September, 1864 by Various

Her presence used to excruciate Osborne; but go she would upon all parties of pleasure on which she heard her young friends were bent.

From Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

“Zama,” a brief, indelible novel by the Argentinean writer Antonio Di Benedetto, is a work of waiting—of enforced lassitude, excruciated anticipation, and final frustration.

From The New Yorker ● Jan. 15, 2017

The speaker is Tithonus himself, in love with Dawn but excruciated to be held captive to yet another day.

From The New Yorker ● Sep. 5, 2016

Thus the Duke of Somerset goes to church, and finds an ignorant generation reposed in a paradise of illusions, while its more learned and thoughtful progeny is excruciated with doubt.

From The Christian Foundation, Or, Scientific and Religious Journal, Volume I, No. 9. September, 1880 by Aaron Walker

I have seen Lamb lately—Brown and I were taken by Hunt to Novello’s—there we were devastated and excruciated with bad and repeated puns—Brown don’t want to go again.

From Letters of John Keats to His Family and Friends by John Keats

Take care, Alex, take care," cried Beatrice, in a sort of excruciated tone; "don't you see what a pinch you are giving it!

From Henrietta's Wish Or, Domineering by Charlotte Mary Yonge

"Listening to the over-performative drama of Zack's evidence was excruciating as he made himself out to be the victim," Lisa added.

From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2026

She was diagnosed at 19 after undergoing a laparoscopy when she was in "excruciating" pain.

From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026

She faced an excruciating decision familiar to many minority families: how to balance the cultural and social education they want for their children against the academic preparation they need.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026

Charities step in to help some people leave on chartered planes, as well as via long, excruciating journeys on overcrowded trains and buses.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026

I made so many mistakes that I was forced to melt down the error-filled slugs and retype them with excruciating slowness, digging my teeth into my inner cheek until the letters became Yiddish once more.

From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros