subs. phr. (popular).—A special column in newspapers devoted to harrowing advertisements of missing friends and private business: orig. the second column of the Times.
1870. L. OLIPHANT, Piccadilly, II. 78. The advertisement of the committee,… appeared in the AGONY COLUMN of the Times.
1873. W. BLACK, A Princess of Thule. And how does she propose to succeed? Pollaky? The AGONY COLUMN? Placards, or a Bell-man? Ibid. (1881), The Beautiful Wretch, xxiii. There were anonymous appeals to the runaways in AGONY COLUMNS.
1880. Times, 28 Dec., 10. 1. A cryptogram in the AGONY-COLUMN.
