Synonyms:
racking, wrenching
Meaning: causing great physical or mental suffering; "a wrenching pain"
Usage examples
He turned in anguish of heart toward the south, for there less racking remembrances hovered over the distant hills.
As the war had caught him in the service, Nicholas Rostov took a close and prolonged part in the defense of his country, but did so casually, without any aim at self-sacrifice, and he therefore looked at what was going on in Russia without despair and without dismally racking his brains over it.