Tempest - Dictionary Definition and Overview

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"

Based on WordNet 2.0

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.

Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

Tempest : \Tem"pest\, v. i. To storm. [Obs.] --B. Jonson.

Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

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.

Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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