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tempest - 7 dictionary results

tem⋅pest

  [tem-pist]
Use tempest in a Sentence
–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 -ty 2

Tempest, The

 
–noun
a comedy (1611) by Shakespeare.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To tempest
tem·pest   (těm'pĭst)   
n.  
  1. A violent windstorm, frequently accompanied by rain, snow, or hail.
  2. 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.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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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.

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.

Tempest

Tem"pest\, v. i. To storm. [Obs.] --B. Jonson.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : tempest
Spanish: tempestad, tormenta,
German: der Sturm,
Japanese: 大嵐
More Translations »

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.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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