Also 7 excruciat, -tiat(e. [f. L. excruciāt- ppl. stem of excruciāre, f. ex- intensive (see EX- pref.1 2) + cruciāre to torment, f. cruc-em cross.]
1. † a. lit. To subject to torture, put on the rack, etc.; fig. to ‘rack’ (one’s brains) (obs.). b. transf. To cause intense pain to, torment acutely (a person’s senses). Often hyperbolical.
1570. Levins, Manip., 41. To Excruciate, excruciare.
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T. (1613), 154. They … by pining and excruciating their bodies, liue in hell here on earth, to auoid the hell neuer ending. Ibid. (1593), Four Lett. Confut., 56. You shall not excruciate your braine to be conceited and haue no wit.
1623. Cockeram, III. Perillus … invented a brazen Bull … made redhot to torment and excruciate malefactors.
1717. Bullock, Woman is a riddle, I. i. May convulsions seize and excruciate my optick nerves.
1830. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. IV. (1863), 256. The bassoon, on which George Evans was wont … to excruciate the ears of the whole congregation.
2. fig. To torture mentally, inflict extreme mental anguish upon.
1586. Marlowe, 1st Pt. Tamburl., I. i. But this it is that doth excruciate The verie substance of my vexed soule!
1611. Markham, Countr. Content., I. xi. (1668), 61. He must … neither vex nor excruciate himself with losses or mischances.
1655–60. Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), 617/2. He neither blunts his mind, nor excrutiats it with cares.
1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 47, ¶ 17. If a customer talks longer than he is willing to hear, he will complain that he has been excruciated with unmeaning verbosity.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, xxvi. 445. He described himself as excruciated with anxiety.
absol. 1651. Charleton, Ephes. & Cimm. Matrons, II. (1668), 44. Their joys are infested with such calamities, that they excruciate.
Hence Excruciated ppl. a., tormented, tortured.
1632. Vienna, 89. My excruciated thoughts cannot but live, as strangers in forraigne delights.
1792. Minstrel (1793), I. 80. Oh my excruciated heart!
