How to Use agonizing in a Sentence

agonizing

adjective
Definition of agonizingnext
Synonyms for agonizingnext
  • She made the agonizing decision to cancel the trip.
  • He was in agonizing pain.
  • The agonizing wait was finally over.
  • On its own, the death of any child is a painful and agonizing time for a parent.
    — Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 5 Mar. 2024
  • The first loss was the most agonizing, with the Gauchos scoring to runs in the top of the ninth inning to break a 2-2 tie.
    — Kirk Kenney, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Apr. 2023
  • The point is that Adams saved a man from agonizing pain and bonded with Griffith in the process.
    — Lincee Ray, EW.com, 7 Apr. 2023
  • Then came the awful news of the shooting and the lockdown and agonizing hours of waiting.
    — Ian Shapira, Washington Post, 25 May 2022
  • The tumors often invaded the spine and the chest wall, and led to agonizing deaths.
    — Siddhartha Mukherjee, The New Yorker, 11 Dec. 2023
  • Losing stinks—and the what-ifs and could-have-beens in the postseason can be agonizing.
    — Chris Morris, Fortune, 12 Feb. 2024
  • The process of choosing the Person of the Year—who or what most influenced the events of the past 12 months, for good or for ill—can be agonizing.
    — Time, 7 Dec. 2022
  • The agonizing losses toughened the Tigers for the new season.
    — oregonlive, 7 Sep. 2022
  • This has been an agonizing turn of events for what was to be such a special weekend.
    — Daniel Kreps, Rolling Stone, 10 Sep. 2023
  • For Powell, his role as the cocky Hangman in the movie is likely to be a breakout for him, which made the wait more agonizing.
    — Pamela McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter, 28 Apr. 2022
  • Then came the agonizing wait before the family learned the surgery had been a success.
    — Janet Shamlian, CBS News, 13 Mar. 2024
  • Then there was the matter of locking down the rights to spotlight the books, which was predictably agonizing, at least in the first season.
    — Jonathan Taylor, Los Angeles Times, 11 July 2023
  • At the news conference, Wood said that the death of her daughter was agonizing.
    — Greg Moran, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 July 2023
  • On one end, there's the soldier forced to make morally agonizing choices in a war zone.
    — Steve Salee, Forbes, 20 Feb. 2024
  • While Kyiv and other cities away from the front are slowly coming back to life, the choice about whether to return for the long term is agonizing.
    — Marc Santora Lynsey Addario, New York Times, 29 Aug. 2022
  • In between these agonizing pauses, Dino takes to the streets for a dance break.
    — Kalia Richardson, Rolling Stone, 27 Nov. 2023
  • That agonizing decision to either risk it and go for it or to have to go somewhere and get change.
    — Corky Carroll, Orange County Register, 26 Jan. 2024
  • By the time Jones returned in Week 13, the Titans were in the throes of what ended as an agonizing seven-game losing streak.
    — Joe Drape, New York Times, 12 Jan. 2023
  • The constricted blood flow can cause a crisis of agonizing pain for the patient.
    — Tesfaye Negussie, ABC News, 11 Nov. 2023
  • Still, Gaetz is no stranger to forcing Congress (and the rest of us) to sit through round after round of agonizing votes for House speaker.
    — Tori Otten, The New Republic, 3 Oct. 2023
  • Forever searching For those left behind in Tunisia, the wait and the search are agonizing.
    — David McKenzie, CNN, 22 July 2022
  • That agonizing scene, like many others, comes straight from the novel.
    — Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times, 27 Oct. 2022
  • These aren’t the complex and agonizing murder puzzles of the sequel.
    — Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 2 Sep. 2022
  • It’s been six years since UConn won a title, an agonizing stretch for the most dominant program in the history of the sport.
    — Lindsay Schnell, USA TODAY, 7 Nov. 2022
  • On board are Ukrainians who have been wrestling with the agonizing decision of whether to return home six months into the war.
    — Loveday Morris, Washington Post, 23 Aug. 2022
  • Learn more about this agonizing fact in today’s episode.
    — Rachel Feltman, Popular Science, 11 Oct. 2023
  • Perhaps most agonizing in all this is the ordeal of Gaza’s children.
    — Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 1 Mar. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'agonizing.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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