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.
- 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. - To press; cram, in any way; cram with food.
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 extremephysical pain oranguish ;sudden andtransitory agony ;throe - noun often pluralized A
sharp , suddenfeeling of amental oremotional nature, as ofjoy orsorrow - verb transitive to
torment ; totorture ; to cause to have greatpain orsuffering
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
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word pang.
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.
-
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.
-
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
frindley commented on the word pang
This is the word used for a gunshot in my German translation of a Tin Tin story (Der blaue Lotos).
April 8, 2008