Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Tempest"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
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.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Tempest \Tem"pest\, v. i.
To storm. [Obs.] --B. Jonson.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
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}.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
tempest
n 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"
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