What's the difference between agony and ecstasy?

Agony


Definition:

  • (n.) Violent contest or striving.
  • (n.) Pain so extreme as to cause writhing or contortions of the body, similar to those made in the athletic contests in Greece; and hence, extreme pain of mind or body; anguish; paroxysm of grief; specifically, the sufferings of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane.
  • (n.) Paroxysm of joy; keen emotion.
  • (n.) The last struggle of life; death struggle.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) "The new feminine ideal is of egg-smooth perfection from hairline to toes," she writes, describing the exquisite agony of having her fingers, arms, back, buttocks and nostrils waxed.
  • (2) It has been awfully hard-won, carved slowly out of a big block of human agony.
  • (3) Her agony and her rapture stay interior, and they flip-flop like nerves in this beautiful, grave black-and-white movie.
  • (4) Those who remember the Two Davids of the 1987 SDP-Liberal Alliance will recall the exquisite agony only too well, cruelly captured by the Spitting Image puppet of little Steel perched in big Owen's pocket.
  • (5) Using male and female Wistar rats, pituitary response to cardiac and respiratory failure type (CFT and RFT) sudden death caused by the intravenous administration of KC1 and SCC, respectively, was examined by analyzing variation in pituitary immunoreactive beta-endorphin (IR-beta-EP) levels determined by radioimmunoassay after death and in circulating IR-beta-EP levels during periods of agony.
  • (6) I was in the surgical ward at Westmorland General Hospital on Kendal Green, and it was agony.
  • (7) I'd go after work and he'd paint till 1 or 1.30 in the morning, and it was agony lying there on the floor.
  • (8) Evidently fuelled by the agony of losing a series twelve months ago when the trophy was almost within their grasp, they also had the teamwork, technique and experience to turn their quest for revenge into a reality.
  • (9) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Even those who’ve never seen a downhill ski race couldn’t help but sympathise with Bode Miller’s agony at missing out on a medal in what will surely be the last Olympic event of his career.
  • (10) "When the disaster was big enough," King writes, "agony and violent death had an enriching quality."
  • (11) Even at UCH, when no one was there for us and my father, having not slept for almost 30 hours, was pulling his hair out in agony, I tried to look at it all as a kind of comedy of errors."
  • (12) They were subject, of course, to the prison censor, but the agony over Winnie, and the passion of which that agony was a product, blazes through them.
  • (13) That he ended up in the dock in The Hague at all surprised many who have studied the man and his country's agony through the 1990s.
  • (14) Shawcross, however, maintains there was no bad intent and said for that reason he has not been tormenting himself about the moment he collided with Ramsey's right leg and left the teenager writhing in agony.
  • (15) He notes the uneven agony - 80% will land in developing countries.
  • (16) The poor animals are thrown back into the water to die in agony, a practice condemned by environmental campaigners.
  • (17) The rest was pure agony for the Australians, give or take a yellow card for Sonny Bill Williams, given for a dangerous tackle.
  • (18) The woman before you in agony pushing and pushing, losing all dignity, does not care one bit whether I am feeling alarmed at her screaming, worried about where I should be standing, wondering whether I should rub her back or try and make small talk between contractions.
  • (19) Litvinenko sipped “three or four times” from a cup of radioactive tea, and died in agony 23 days later, the inquiry heard last week.
  • (20) Our most excruciating agony is of not being noticed in the world.

Ecstasy


Definition:

  • (n.) The state of being beside one's self or rapt out of one's self; a state in which the mind is elevated above the reach of ordinary impressions, as when under the influence of overpowering emotion; an extraordinary elevation of the spirit, as when the soul, unconscious of sensible objects, is supposed to contemplate heavenly mysteries.
  • (n.) Excessive and overmastering joy or enthusiasm; rapture; enthusiastic delight.
  • (n.) Violent distraction of mind; violent emotion; excessive grief of anxiety; insanity; madness.
  • (n.) A state which consists in total suspension of sensibility, of voluntary motion, and largely of mental power. The body is erect and inflexible; the pulsation and breathing are not affected.
  • (v. t.) To fill ecstasy, or with rapture or enthusiasm.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) When it was grown, it would bring both ecstasy and catastrophe to women.
  • (2) The survey found that, among clubbers who reported having taken ecstasy within the past month, three quarters had also taken mephedrone – known in the media as "meow meow" – within the same period.
  • (3) West Ham, a surprising presence in the top four, were the better side and Carroll’s first goal since January was a moment of pure ecstasy for a player who has worked hard to return from the knee injury he suffered in February.
  • (4) She has also impressed the rank and file with her tough talking to the Police Federation, vowing to break its power and bringing to an end its closed-shop practices, sending many Tories of a certain age into ecstasies of Thatcherite nostalgia.
  • (5) What the last government has done, systematically, is pretend that there's a science that we need to be concerned about, with drugs like cannabis and ecstasy, which is the justification for doing what they did – making cannabis class B and keeping ecstasy class A.
  • (6) And ecstasy was a breakthrough, a gateway to a new way of living and being.
  • (7) This idea is quite contrary to the traditional view that the ancient Maya were a contemplative people, who did not indulge in ritual ecstasy.
  • (8) They also reported evidence from almost all regions of the world that tablets sold as ecstasy or methamphetamine contained not just the touted ingredients; they also increasingly comprised chemical cocktails that posed unforeseen public health challenges.
  • (9) Now we think that manufacturers have figured out a new way of making ecstasy without it.
  • (10) But Nutt admits that he still can't fully answer the question people really want to know, namely: "If you took a standard dose of alcohol, cocaine, heroin or ecstasy, which would be more harmful?"
  • (11) Celebrity use Celebrities who have admitted taking ecstasy include Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher, who claimed that taking drugs is 'like having a cup of tea', boyband star Brian Harvey and Blur's Damon Albarn.
  • (12) Within 12 months of his appointment he published a paper that found horse riding to be more dangerous than taking ecstasy – and probably, he suspects, triggered his dismissal nine months later.
  • (13) Alcohol came top, higher than heroin, crack and crystal meth, while ecstasy and LSD were ranked among the least damaging.
  • (14) The UK has followed US trends over cannabis, heroin and psychedelics, and led the world in the vilification of MDMA (ecstasy).
  • (15) She did ecstasy for the first time with, among others, psychedelic guru Timothy Leary.
  • (16) The primary reported effects of Ecstasy were a 'positive mood state' and feelings of intimacy and closeness to others.
  • (17) The result seemed assured but more drama was to come, Vaughan rifling an unstoppable shot into the top corner from the left edge of the penalty area to send Sunderland's fans and Di Canio into ecstasy.
  • (18) Alcohol and tobacco are more harmful than many illegal drugs, including LSD, ecstasy and cannabis, according to a paper from a drugs expert.
  • (19) He was sacked as head of the Home Office’s advisory council on the misuse of drugs in 2009 when he pointed out that research showed taking ecstasy was less dangerous than horseriding.
  • (20) That miss allowed Kolarov to redeem himself by sending in the corner that Touré volleyed past Gomes at the near post, before Agüero sent the travelling fans into ecstasy, expertly heading in Bacary Sagna’s cross.