tempest - Definitions from Dictionary.com

9 results for: tempest

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

tem·pest

Audio Help [tem-pist] Pronunciation Key

–noun

1.	a violent windstorm, esp. one with rain, hail, or snow.

2.	a violent commotion, disturbance, or tumult.

–verb (used with object)

3.	to affect by or as by a tempest; disturb violently.

—Idiom

4.	tempest in a teacup. teacup (def. 3).

[Origin: 1200–50; ME tempeste < OF < VL *tempesta, for L tempestās season, weather, storm, equiv. to tempes- (var. s. of tempus time) + -tās -ty²

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
tempest

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

tem·pest Audio Help (těm'pĭst) Pronunciation Key
n.

A violent windstorm, frequently accompanied by rain, snow, or hail.
Furious agitation, commotion, or tumult; an uproar: "The tempest in my mind/Doth from my senses take all feeling" (Shakespeare).

tr.v. tem·pest·ed, tem·pest·ing, tem·pests
To cause a tempest around or in.

[Middle English, from Old French tempeste, from Vulgar Latin *tempesta, variant of Latin tempestās, from tempus, time.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
tempest

"violent storm," c.1250, from O.Fr. tempeste (11c.), from V.L. *tempesta, from L. tempestas (gen. tempestatis) "storm, weather, season," also "commotion, disturbance," related to tempus "time, season." Sense evolution is from "period of time" to "period of weather," to "bad weather" to "storm." Words for "weather" were originally words for "time" in languages from Russia to Brittany. Fig. sense of "violent commotion" is recorded from c.1315. Tempestuous is attested from 1447.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

tempest
noun
1.	a violent commotion or disturbance; "the storms that had characterized their relationship had died away"; "it was only a tempest in a teapot" [syn: storm]
2.	(literary) a violent wind; "a tempest swept over the island"

Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
tempest [ˈtempist] noun

a violent storm, with very strong winds
Example: A tempest arose and they were drowned at sea.

Arabic:	عاصِفَه
Chinese (Simplified):	大风暴，暴风雨
Chinese (Traditional):	大風暴，暴風雨
Czech:	bouře
Danish:	storm
Dutch:	storm
Estonian:	maru, raju
Finnish:	myrsky
French:	tempête
German:	der Sturm
Greek:	καταιγίδα
Hungarian:	vihar
Icelandic:	óveður, ofviðri
Indonesian:	badai
Italian:	tempesta

Japanese:	大嵐
Korean:	폭풍우
Latvian:	vētra
Lithuanian:	audra
Norwegian:	uvær, storm
Polish:	burza
Portuguese (Brazil):	tempestade
Portuguese (Portugal):	tempestade
Romanian:	furtună
Russian:	буря
Slovak:	búrka
Slovenian:	nevihta
Spanish:	tempestad, tormenta
Swedish:	storm, oväder
Turkish:	şiddetli fırtına, bora

See also: tempestuous, "tempest" in any language

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Tempest

Storm\, n. [AS. storm; akin to D. storm, G. sturm, Icel. stormr; and perhaps to Gr. ? assault, onset, Skr. s? to flow, to hasten, or perhaps to L. sternere to strew, prostrate (cf. Stratum). [root]166.]

1. A violent disturbance of the atmosphere, attended by wind, rain, snow, hail, or thunder and lightning; hence, often, a heavy fall of rain, snow, or hail, whether accompanied with wind or not.

We hear this fearful tempest sing, Yet seek no shelter to avoid the storm. --Shak.

2. A violent agitation of human society; a civil, political, or domestic commotion; sedition, insurrection, or war; violent outbreak; clamor; tumult.

I will stir up in England some black storm. --Shak.

Her sister Began to scold and raise up such a storm. --Shak.

3. A heavy shower or fall, any adverse outburst of tumultuous force; violence.

A brave man struggling in the storms of fate. --Pope.

4. (Mil.) A violent assault on a fortified place; a furious attempt of troops to enter and take a fortified place by scaling the walls, forcing the gates, or the like.

Note: Storm is often used in the formation of self-explained compounds; as, storm-presaging, stormproof, storm-tossed, and the like.

Magnetic storm. See under Magnetic.

Storm-and-stress period [a translation of G. sturm und drang periode], a designation given to the literary agitation and revolutionary development in Germany under the lead of Goethe and Schiller in the latter part of the 18th century.

Storm center (Meteorol.), the center of the area covered by a storm, especially by a storm of large extent.

Storm door (Arch.), an extra outside door to prevent the entrance of wind, cold, rain, etc.; -- usually removed in summer.

Storm path (Meteorol.), the course over which a storm, or storm center, travels.

Storm petrel. (Zo["o]l.) See Stormy petrel, under Petrel.

Storm sail (Naut.), any one of a number of strong, heavy sails that are bent and set in stormy weather.

Storm scud. See the Note under Cloud.

Syn: Tempest; violence; agitation; calamity.

Usage: Storm, Tempest. Storm is violent agitation, a commotion of the elements by wind, etc., but not necessarily implying the fall of anything from the clouds. Hence, to call a mere fall or rain without wind a storm is a departure from the true sense of the word. A tempest is a sudden and violent storm, such as those common on the coast of Italy, where the term originated, and is usually attended by a heavy rain, with lightning and thunder.

Storms beat, and rolls the main; O! beat those storms, and roll the seas, in vain. --Pope.

What at first was called a gust, the same Hath now a storm's, anon a tempest's name. --Donne.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Tempest

Tem"pest\, n. [OF. tempeste, F. temp[^e]te, (assumed) LL. tempesta, fr. L. tempestas a portion of time, a season, weather, storm, akin to tempus time. See Temporal of time.]

1. An extensive current of wind, rushing with great velocity and violence, and commonly attended with rain, hail, or snow; a furious storm.

[We] caught in a fiery tempest, shall be hurled, Each on his rock transfixed. --Milton.

2. Fig.: Any violent tumult or commotion; as, a political tempest; a tempest of war, or of the passions.

3. A fashionable assembly; a drum. See the Note under Drum, n., 4. [Archaic] --Smollett.

Note: Tempest is sometimes used in the formation of self-explaining compounds; as, tempest-beaten, tempest-loving, tempest-tossed, tempest-winged, and the like.

Syn: Storm; agitation; perturbation. See Storm.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Tempest

Tem"pest\, v. t. [Cf. OF. tempester, F. temp[^e]ter to rage.] To disturb as by a tempest. [Obs.]

Part huge of bulk Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait, Tempest the ocean. --Milton.

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