Emily Dickinson Lexicon

THROE, n. [Sax. throwian, to suffer, to agonize; but this is the same word as throw, and the sense is to strain, as in twisting, to struggle.]

Extreme pain; violent pang; anguish; agony. It is particularly applied to the anguish of travail in child-birth, or parturition. My throes came thicker, and my cries increas'd. Dryden.