in the throes of
14
8.4
- idiom
:
sumido en
- The country is in the throes of a significant political upheaval, causing widespread unrest.
- in the throes of a crisis
- in the throes of war
- in the throes of death
I think America is in the throes of a massive mental health crisis.
- I think America is in the throes of a massive mental health crisis.
- And Elon Musk, I think is in the throes of an untreated drug addiction.
- But I think you understand this when you're in the throes of your addiction.
- You know, the country was still in the throes of COVID.
- I filmed them shortly after it was all happening and I was still in the throes of like the deepest grief.
- Before then, China was a poor country caught in the throes of a cultural revolution where maybe a million Chinese died.
- But I fear that people won't understand how dark a brain injury is when you're in the throes of it.
- And when you have two sides, both in the throes of these self-serving illusions, you can have endless cycles of vendetta and feuding.
- Easy to rationalize and hard to truly understand when you're in the throes of the intoxication phase of an early romantic relationship.
- Also, don't turn a lady down in the throes of passion.
- It should be spontaneous and you should just be in the throes of passion and nothing is stopping you.
- Where one of the actresses in the throes of ecstasy moaned BLM.
- And then when they're in the throes of it, there's a little regret.
- And he also had a woman from Alabama who was in the throes of doing IVF, and then she had to stop.
- You'd have to start trying to put things together again, something I think might be in the throes of starting as it happens.
- At those moments when the beautiful things are in the throes of failing me, that's when I think about the people who want me to fail.
- The tale of two outcasts and star crossed lovers caught in the throes of a torrid solar flare of a romance featuring time out.
Examples
-
Iran, after all, is a country in the throes of monumental internal transformation.
Academic text (2010) -
I think America is in the throes of a massive mental health crisis.
-
The world around us is in the throes of great change.
-
In short, we have been in the throes of a major crisis.
-
Germany is a country deep in the throes of the Depression.
-
From late 1945 on, France was in the throes of a protracted constitutional crisis.
Academic text (1998) -
There is one place still in the throes of an Arab Spring uprising: Syria.
Blog text (1) -
We have described our experience as senior managers in a healthcare organization in the throes of a union drive by disaffected physicians.
Academic text (2001) -
The American people... in the throes of the Depression as they were... found in him a symbol of possibility... of self-improvement and self-fulfillment.
-
When he was in the throes of a manic episode or a depressive episode, you know, you couldn't reason.
Synonyms
19
4.3
To feel sudden strong fear and act without thinking
4
6.3
Suddenly very afraid and acting without thinking
Antonyms
How Intense
∞
3.1
14
8.4
2
5.1
133
3.5
98
3.2
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly built from the constituents: 'throes' denotes intense pain/struggle, and the prepositional frame 'in the ... of' places someone amid that state, so a learner who knows the word 'throes' can infer 'experiencing a very intense or painful situation.' This compositional pattern is common and has clear cross-linguistic parallels, making the phrase predictable rather than idiomatic.
Etymology
In the throes of may come from the image of someone in the severe pains of childbirth or in sudden strong spasms. To be literally 'in the throes' is to be in intense pain and struggle, so the phrase now means 'in the middle of a very intense or painful situation'.