agony column

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English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Noun

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agony column (plural agony columns)

  1. (chiefly UK) A column of a newspaper which contains advertisements relating to lost relatives and friends and other personal matters.
    • 2005, Tim Lindsey, Chinese Indonesians: Remembering, Distorting, Forgetting, page 165:
      Underlying the discussion of values in the magazine's "agony" columns is a theme of changing values, and we see a society aware of the difference between traditional and modern values and beginning to move away — albeit to a small degree — from traditional attitudes and behaviour.
    • 1881, Alice Clay, editor, The Agony Column of the "Times" 1800-1870, page vi:
      There is little doubt that lovers separated by unfortunate circumstances, or by angry parents, as well as bachelors meditating matrimony, have found in the "Agony Column" a safe means of secret correspondence.
  2. A column written by an agony aunt, giving advice on readers' personal problems.
    Synonym: advice column
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References

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