agonal

Adjective

1. Of or pertaining to struggle, competition or conflict; of or pertaining to an agon.
   • Even the agonal games which began with the ancient Greeks were playful in their singular devotion to deities. Games were agonal demonstrations of transcendence. - 1994, Edward Kuhlman, Agony in Education: The Importance...
   • The agonal spirit was strong enough to inspire 'shame' at a failure to fight when the enemy offered battle, but not so strong that it made armies accept battle under any circumstances. - 2004, Hans van Wees, Greek...
   • It is because the very basis of their world view, emerging from the deepest recesses of their psyches where their most basic identities were formed from birth – long before they experienced the agonal reality of class –...
2. Of or pertaining to the pain of death.
   • The similarity of these persistent invaginations to the agonal is quite marked; like the agonal, they are multiple, rather short, they are in the ileum, and they are ascending, which is not at all an uncommon feature of...
   • In contrast, severe infections are characterized by the development of hypoglycemia during the agonal stages of the disease process as a result of an impaired capacity of the liver to synthesize glucose (LaNoue et al.,...
   • The agonal effects associated with prolonged illness may influence the pH, and subsequently a number of chemical substances in the brain. - 2003, Dick F. Swaab, Human Hypothalamus: Basic and Clinical Aspects, Part I,...