Emily Dickinson Lexicon

anguish, n. [OFr anguisse, the painful sensation of choking < L. angustia, straitness, tightness < ang(u)-ěre, to strangle.] (webplay: agony, despair, mind, narrowness, pain, passion, sorrow, spirit).

1. Expiration; cessation of breathing.
2. Hurt; pain; severe discomfort from a wound; [fig.] torment; torture.
3. Grief; tribulation; distress; extreme suffering of body or mind; keen distress from sorrow, remorse, despair, or similar emotion.
4. Spiritual death; fall into mortality; separation from the presence of God; consequences of Adam and Eve's transgression in the Garden of Eden (see Jeremiah 4:31).
5. Extreme ecstasy; powerful transport; passionate feeling; painfully intense emotion.