pang

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It is useless to suffer a pang until the pang is actually upon you.

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Definitions (12)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A sudden sharp spasm of pain. See Synonyms at pain.
  2. noun A sudden sharp feeling of emotional distress.
  3. transitive verb To cause to feel pangs; distress acutely.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (4)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (3)

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Examples (50)

  • But so deep was the peace which had fallen on her heart that the news gave no pang--caused no tears Olive, dearest," said Mrs. Rothesay, herself subdued into weeping I know, mamma," was the answer. —  Olive A Novel
  • And his murderer stood by to see the shudder convulse the rigid limbs, and count each lingering pang--calm, pitiless, unmoved, his face so serene in its chill indifference, its brutal and unnatural tranquillity, whilst beneath the drooped lids his eyes watched with the dark glitter of a triumphant vengeance the last agony of the man whom he had loved, that the two who were with him in this ghastly hour shrank involuntarily from his side, awed more by the Living than the Dead. —  Wisdom, Wit, and Pathos of Ouida Selected from the Works of Ouida
  • They would have, he and she at least, their common pang--through which fact, somehow, he should feel less stranded. —  The Finer Grain
  • Mixed with his joy was a half-pang, as he realised that he had lost his fear of Poppy Tyrell I promised my father," said the girl, presently. —  A Master Of Craft
  • Why could she not smother down the unwonted pang, the new craving? —  Agatha's Husband A Novel
 

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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

twinge ·  agony ·  spasm ·  ache ·  tremor ·  torment ·  surge ·  sensation ·  thrill ·  throes ·  jolt ·  flicker

Used in the same contextWord Family

pang:   pangs
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Origin unknown.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. Early modern English also pangue (in imitation of Frenchified spellings like tongue, etc.); from Middle English *pange (in derived verb pangen), an altered form of prange, pronge, pang, throe (by loss of r, due to confusion, perhaps, with pinch, pine, French poindre = Anglo-Saxon pyngan, from Latin pungere (see point), stab., etc., but paralleled by the similar case of speak, from AS.specan for sprecan): see prong. The W. pang, a pang, convulsion, may be from English
  2. from Middle English pangen; from pang, n.
  3. Perhaps a variant of equivalent pamp, by some association with pang.
 

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/pæŋ/
by American Heritage

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