ache
Americanverb (used without object)
-
to have or suffer a continuous, dull pain.
His whole body ached.
- Synonyms:
- hurt
-
to feel great sympathy, pity, or the like.
Her heart ached for the starving animals.
-
to feel eager; yearn; long.
She ached to be the champion. He's just aching to get even.
noun
verb
-
to feel, suffer, or be the source of a continuous dull pain
-
to suffer mental anguish
noun
Related Words
See pain.
Other Word Forms
- aching adjective
- achingly adverb
Etymology
Origin of ache
before 900; (v.) Middle English aken, Old English acan; perhaps metaphoric use of earlier unattested sense “drive, impel” (compare Old Norse aka, cognate with Latin agere, Greek ágein ); (noun) derivative of the v.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
My head stops aching and the sharp pain in my ribs goes down as I sit on a log and drink tea and let the beauty work into me for that whole day.
From Literature
My heart aches with grief for those children, and my chest burns with anger at this war that has set friends against friends and neighbours against neighbours.
From Literature
“What would he want with the sea, and the cold, and the aching hard work?”
From Literature
The way he bit his lip, the nervous but hopeful expression, the searching green eyes: he was so achingly familiar.
From Literature
She wants GPs better trained to recognise symptoms sooner, and more research into the condition, stressing it is "not as simple as just having a tummy ache here and there".
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
