Meaning & use
excruciate
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Meanings
verbtransitiveformalrare
To cause severe physical or mental pain to someone.
Grammar: Takes an object, often a person: the injury excruciated him.
Patterns
- excruciate someone
- be excruciated by something
The wound excruciated him for weeks after the accident.
She was excruciated by guilt over the decision.
Old accounts describe prisoners excruciated by cold and hunger.
verbtransitiveliteraryrare
To torment or distress someone greatly in an emotional way.
Grammar: Used with feelings or thoughts as the cause: doubt excruciated her.
Patterns
- excruciate someone with something
His silence excruciated her more than any argument could.
The memory excruciated him every night.
Word forms
| third person singular | excruciates |
|---|---|
| past tense | excruciated |
| past participle | excruciated |
| -ing form | excruciating |
Common combinations
- excruciating pain
- The patient described excruciating pain in his lower back.
- excruciating detail
- She recalled the day in excruciating detail.
- an excruciating wait
- The excruciating wait for the results lasted three hours.
Synonyms and how they differ
- torture
- More common and stronger in everyday use; it suggests deliberate cruelty, while excruciate simply means to cause intense pain.
- agonize
- Usually intransitive and about the sufferer's own worry, as in 'she agonized over it', not about causing pain to someone else.
- torment
- Close in meaning but far more common and can be used for both physical and mental suffering.
Opposites
Word family
- excruciating adjective
- Extremely painful or intense.
- excruciatingly adverb
- In a way that is extremely painful or intense.
- excruciation noun
- The state of being severely pained.
Commonly confused: excruciate or excruciating?
excruciate vs excruciating
The adjective is common; the verb excruciate is rare. Learners usually want 'excruciating pain', not 'excruciate pain'.
Practice
Which sentence uses the verb correctly?
Choose one answer.
Excruciate is a transitive verb taking a direct object, so 'excruciated him' is correct. Option 3 uses the adjective form, and option 4 wrongly adds 'to'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “excruciate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.