English

Noun

pang ‎(plural pangs)

1. (often pluralized) paroxysm of extreme physical pain or anguish; sudden and transitory agony; throe
   • 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part II, act 3, sc. 3,

     See, how the pangs of death do make him grin!

   • 1888, Oscar Wilde, "The Nightingale and the Rose" in The Happy Prince and Other Tales,

     So the Nightingale pressed closer against the thorn, and the thorn touched her heart, and a fierce pang of pain shot through her.

2. (often pluralized) A sharp, sudden feeling of a mental or emotional nature, as of joy or sorrow
   • 1867, Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Guardian Angel, ch. 7,

     He was startled with a piece of information which gave him such an exquisite pang of delight that he could hardly keep the usual quiet of his demeanor.

Translations

Related terms

• birth pangs
• pang of conscience

Verb

pang ‎(third-person singular simple present pangs, present participle panging, simple past and past participle panged)

1. (transitive) to torment; to torture; to cause to have great pain or suffering
   • 1918, Christopher Morley, "On Unanswering Letters" in Mince Pie,

     It panged him so to say good-bye when he had to leave.

Translations

Estonian

Noun

pang ‎(genitive [please provide], partitive [please provide])

1. bucket

Declension

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Synonyms

• ämber

Javanese

Noun

pang

1. branch

Mandarin

Romanization

pang

1. Nonstandard spelling of pāng.
2. Nonstandard spelling of páng.
3. Nonstandard spelling of pǎng.
4. Nonstandard spelling of pàng.

Usage notes

• English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

Romansch

Alternative forms

• (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Puter) paun
• (Sutsilvan) pàn
• (Vallader) pan

Etymology

From Latin pānis, pānem.

Noun

pang m

1. (Surmiran) bread

Noun

pang m (plural pangs)

1. (Surmiran) loaf of bread

Swedish

Interjection

pang

1. bang (verbal percussive sound)

Noun

pang n

1. bang, explosion
   • 1887, August Strindberg, Hemsöborna

     när plötsligen det hördes ett pang! utanför på gården och rasslet av glasskärvor.

     when suddenly they heard a bang! outside in the yard and the sound of broken glass.

   Han vaknade med ett pang.

   He woke up with a bang.

2. (colloquial, dated) pension house, hotel; Contraction of pensionat.

Declension

Usage notes

• The Swedish translation of John Cleese's Fawlty Towers (1975), "Pang i bygget" (1979) is a pun based on both definitions.