paroxysmal, a.
(pærəkˈsɪzməl)
[f. prec. + -al1.]
Pertaining to or of the nature of a paroxysm; marked by paroxysms; violent, convulsive.
| 1651 Biggs New Disp. 144 The cruel Tertian did not for⁓get to keep its paroxysmal course and return. 1811 Shelley St. Irvyne x. Pr. Wks. 1888 I. 200 In a paroxismal frenzy of contending passions. 1866 A. Flint Princ. Med. (1880) 253 Asthma is essentially a paroxysmal disease. 1878 Bayne Purit. Rev. 488 A risk of their being elected in some paroxysmal mood of feeling. |
b. spec. in Geol. Of or pertaining to a violent natural convulsion; sometimes = catastrophic, cataclysmic. (In quot. 1877, Holding the theory of paroxysmal or catastrophic changes.)
| 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 463 Paroxysmal convulsions..are usually followed by long periods of tranquillity. 1841 J. Trimmer Pract. Geol. 469 These paroxysmal disturbances which have hitherto occurred at intervals from the remotest geological periods, may be renewed. 1877 A. H. Green Phys. Geol. xi. §4. 524 The Paroxysmal School of Geologists. 1882 J. Geikie in Nature XXVII. 44/2 We have had experience of paroxysmal changes of level. |
Hence paroˈxysmalist Geol. = paroxysmist; paroˈxysmally adv., in a paroxysmal way, by or in paroxysms or fits.
| 1833 Lyell Princ. Geol. III. 149 A line of shoals, therefore, or reefs, consisting of shattered and dislocated rocks,..ought first to have been pointed out by the paroxysmalist. 1859 Semple Diphtheria 85 The hæmorrhage..is suspended and paroxysmally renewed. |