take by storm

English

WOTD – 3 August 2007

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌteɪk baɪ ˈstɔːm/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˌteɪk baɪ ˈstɔːɹm/
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Verb

take by storm

  1. (transitive, military) To capture by means of a sudden, overwhelming attack.
    The soldiers took the castle by storm.
  2. (transitive, idiomatic) To seize, overpower, or captivate in a sudden and forceful manner.
    • 1841, Charles Dickens, chapter 71, in Barnaby Rudge:
      [A] startling interruption occurred at that moment, which took their whole attention by storm.
    • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, chapter 33, in Jane Eyre:
      How I looked while these ideas were taking my spirit by storm, I cannot tell.
  3. (transitive, idiomatic) To rapidly gain great popularity in (a place).
    • 1908, Jack London, chapter 1, in The Iron Heel:
      This obscure reference ["Blind Tom"] applies to a blind negro musician who took the world by storm in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
    • 1969, Arnold Shaw, The Rock Revolution, page 1:
      Beatlemania took England and Europe by storm and proceeded to inundate American teenagers.

Translations

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