throe
/θroʊ/
noun
- A severe, often sudden pain or spasm, especially associated with childbirth or death.
- The patient's final throes were quiet and peaceful.
- He experienced the throes of a terrible migraine.
- The woman was in the throes of labor, breathing heavily.
- A condition of intense struggle, difficulty, or upheaval (usually used in the phrase 'in the throes of').
- The company is in the throes of a major reorganization.
- The country was in the throes of a political crisis.
- She was in the throes of writing her first novel.