tempestuous

English

Etymology

From Middle English tempestuous, tempestious, variants of tempestous, from Old French tempesteus, tempestos, tempestuose, from Latin tempestuōsus, equivalent to tempest + -uous.

Adjective

tempestuous (comparative more tempestuous, superlative most tempestuous)

  1. Of, or resembling a tempest; stormy, tumultuous.
    • 1904, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez”, in The Return of Sherlock HolmesWikisource:
      It was a wild, tempestuous night towards the close of November. [] Outside the wind howled down Baker Street, while the rain beat fiercely against the windows. It was strange there in the very depths of the town, with ten miles of man's handiwork on every side of us, to feel the iron grip of Nature, and to be conscious that to the huge elemental forces all London was no more than the molehills that dot the fields.
    • 1610–11, William Shakespeare, The Tempest:
      [On a ship at sea]: a tempestuous noise of thunder and lightening heard.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.