noun violent contest or striving.
2. agony ·noun paroxysm of joy; keen emotion.
3. agony ·noun the last struggle of life; death struggle.
4. agony ·noun 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.