stormy, a.
(ˈstɔːmɪ)
[f. storm n. + -y.]
1. Of the weather, season, air, sky, sea, etc.: Characterized by storm or tempest; tempestuous. Of a place or region: Subject to storms.
| a 1200 in Anglia XI. 369 Hit byð..windiᵹ sumer and storemiᵹ and ᵹeswyncfull hærfest. a 1300 Cursor M. 22691 A stormi dai, a stret of au. ? a 1366 Chaucer Rom. Rose 455 And if the wedir stormy were For colde she shulde haue deyd there. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 35 Now be the stormy wynter shoures. 1535 Coverdale Ps. liv. 8, I wolde make haist to escape, from the stormy wynde and tempest. 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. viii. 21 And all his windes Dan Aeolus did keepe, From stirring vp their stormy enmitie. 1637 Milton Lycidas 156 Beyond the stormy Hebrides. 1764 Goldsm. Trav. 167 Where the bleak Swiss their stormy mansions tread. 1799 J. Robertson Agric. Perth 356 The wildest and most stormy mountains in Scotland. 1860 Tyndall Glaciers i. xxiii. 164 A wild stormy morning. 1885 Manch. Exam. 15 May 5/6 An Atlantic steamer..ploughing its course across stormy oceans. |
2. fig. Of persons, their temper or looks; of times, events, circumstances, etc.
| a 1340 Hampole Psalter Prol. 3 Now with halesome lare drouyd & stormy saules it bryngis in til clere & pesful lyf. c 1374 Chaucer Troylus ii. 778 For loue is yet þe meste stormy lyf. c 1386 ― Clerk's T. 939 O Stormy peple, vnsad, and euere vntrewe. 1412–20 Lydg. Chron. Troy i. 2245 His stormy cruel aventure. Ibid. iii. 4079 Allas! Fortune,..Whan folk most triste in þi stormy face..Þanne is þi Ioye aweye to turne & wryþe. 1592 Arden of Feversham iii. v. 113 Nothing shall hide me from thy stormy looke. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. i. 164 Your health, the which if you giue-o're To stormy Passion, must perforce decay. 1641 J. Jackson True Evang. T. iii. 193 That Religion which is more turbulent, seditious, and stormy, let it be throwne over-board to lighten the ship of the Church. 1700 Dryden Cymon & Iph. 257 While stormy Cymon thus in secret said [etc.]. 1831 Greville Mem. (1874) II. 153 There was..every promise of a stormy session. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. ii. I. 223 Shaftesbury and Buckingham..appeared at the head of the stormy democracy of the city. 1891 Smiles Mem. J. Murray I. xvii. 443 The discussion was long and stormy before the meeting broke up. 1915 J. Kelman Salted with Fire iv. 40 In the stormy times in which his lot was cast emergencies were constantly arising. |
b. Path. of inflammation.
| 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VI. 903 Meningitis is usually so stormy in its manifestation that [etc.]. |
3. Associated or connected with storms; indicative, predictive, or symbolical of storms. poet.
| 1560 Rolland Seven Sages 24 Anone thay spy into the Firmament Ane stormie sterne that troublit thair Intent. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 419 Now sing we stormy Stars. 1761 Glover Medea v. v. 94 Grim Neptune yonder shakes his stormy trident. 1842 Tennyson Sir Galahad 25 When down the stormy crescent goes. |
b. stormy petrel: the bird Procellaria pelagica. Also fig., a person who delights in strife, or whose appearance on the scene is a harbinger of coming trouble.
| 1776 Pennant Zool. II. 553 Stormy Petrel. 1847 Ld. Campbell Chancellors ccviii. VII. 479 Eldon..came to London..on account of rumours of a dissolution of the Ministry. He went, with some, by the name of the ‘Stormy Petrel’, being supposed to delight in such convulsions. 1892 World 6 Apr. 15 (Brewer), Dr. von Esmarch [a physician] is regarded at court as a stormy petrel, and every effort was made to conceal his visit to the German emperor. |
4. Relating to or concerned with storms. poet.
| 1725 Pope Odyss. i. 232 A duteous people, and industrious Isle, To naval arts inur'd, and stormy toil. |