Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Throe

Throe , noun

[Old English þrowe, þrawe, Anglo-Saxon þreá a threatening, oppression, suffering, perhaps influenced by Icelandic þrā a throe, a pang, a longing; compare Anglo-Saxon þreowian to suffer.]

1.
Extreme pain; violent pang; anguish; agony; especially, one of the pangs of travail in childbirth, or purturition.
Prodogious motion felt, and rueful throes. — Milton
2.
A tool for splitting wood into shingles; a frow.

Throe , intransitive verb

To struggle in extreme pain; to be in agony; to agonize.

Throe , transitive verb

To put in agony. [Rare] — Shakespeare