agonize

This way, we wouldn’t have to agonize over every ride and could even hop aboard to cross the Grand Canal without having to walk to the nearest bridge.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 2, 2026

Refusing even a hint of introspection, she added: “We don’t agonize over what happened. We organize about what comes next.”

From Slate ● Nov. 15, 2024

I agonize over the amount of plastic we can’t avoid using and mourn the monarch butterflies that have vanished.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2024

When they wed, their fans swoon; when stars divorce, people agonize over what went wrong.

From Salon ● Jan. 5, 2024

When I look in the mirror, I agonize about my skin.

From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi

In 1415, on the eve of challenging France at the Battle of Agincourt, he agonizes about the moral burdens of kingship.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026

Miyazaki agonizes over the character of the Great Uncle who has built the fantastical world of the tower in “The Boy and The Heron.”

From Salon ● Dec. 24, 2024

Lately, she agonizes over what she doesn’t know.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 17, 2023

Months later, she still fights feeling of resentment mixed with worry and agonizes over her belief that her return to work had left her mother more vulnerable to Covid.

From New York Times ● May 14, 2022

For the rest of the play, Hamlet agonizes.

From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman

“I agonized for a long time over whether to keep that job,” she says.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2026

Faisuris Alvarez, who runs a beachside fish stand, agonized aloud over these questions without answers.

From Barron's ● Jul. 11, 2026

What if the destruction of your planet left you with a permanent case of agonized alienation, and you became a weird, antisocial loner who hung out in bars drinking alone?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026

Unlike Steve, I haven’t agonized much about my bygone career or felt much of a vacuum where it once was.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 2026

She remembered his agonized cry, “I’m a dead man!” and his childlike plea to his mother to forgive him.

From "Tiger, Tiger" by Lynne Reid Banks

“It was agonizing and just felt to learn this is beyond me,” Mandell told The Times in 2007.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026

Among them are white male entitlement versus the crushing demands of Black exceptionalism; the complicated bond linking fathers to sons; and the agonizing bravery required of mothers raising boys the world is conditioned to ostracize.

From Salon ● Oct. 5, 2026

Collins stood outside for several agonizing minutes, hearing their muffled voices.

From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026

They had already waited four agonizing days for Venezuela’s bureaucracy to approve permits for them to enter.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026

After an agonizing hour of doctors poking and prodding, eight men carried Garfield on the mattress through the train station to the exit.

From "Ambushed!" by Gail Jarrow