▪ I. fury, n.
(ˈfjʊərɪ)
Forms: 5 furey, 4–6 furye, 4–7 -ie, 5– fury.
[a. F. furie (14th c. in Littré), ad. L. furia, related to furĕre to rage, be mad. (OFr. had originally fuire).]
1. Fierce passion, disorder or tumult of mind approaching madness; esp. wild anger, frenzied rage; also, a fit or access of such passion.
The pl. is sometimes used in imitation of F. furies or L. furiæ.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iv. 817 (845) Anoy, smert, drede, fury and eek siknesse. Ibid. v. 212 To bedde he goth and weyleth there and torneth In furie, as dooth he, Ixion, in helle. c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems 206 Sobre and appeese suche folk as falle in furye. 1491 Act 7 Hen. VII, c. 15 Certeyn persones..murdred..in an outrageous hedy furey..John Mountagu late Erle of Sarum. 1564 Child Marriages, etc. (1897) 123 Biecause the wordes were spoken in a furye. 1611 Bible Gen. xxvii. 44 Tary with him a few dayes, vntill thy brothers furie turne away. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. iii. iv. i. i. 706 As Plato doth in his Conuiuio make mention of two distinct furies; and amongst our Neotericks, Hercules de Saxonia..doth expressly treat of it [religious melancholy] in a distinct Species. a 1683 Sidney Disc. Govt. i. xix. (1704) 46 A Poison that would fill the gentlest Spirits with the most violent Furys. 1692 Dryden St. Evremont's Ess. 351 He..fell into such strange furies, that [etc.]. 1704 F. Fuller Med. Gymn. (1705) 159 (Hypochondria), 'Tis the first Fury that is the most Dangerous and Violent. 1713 Swift, etc. Frenzy J. Dennis Wks. 1755 III. i. 146 He flung down the book in a terrible fury. 1756 Burke Vind. Nat. Soc. Wks. I. 37 When Alexander had in his fury inhumanly butchered one of his best friends. 1866 Conington æneid xii. 410 Such furies in his bosom rise. 1879 Farrar St. Paul (1883) 118 He could hardly have addressed them in words more calculated to kindle their fury. |
b. of beasts.
| 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. iii. 111 Thy wild acts denote The vnreasonable Furie of a beast. 1611 Bible Wisd. vii. 20 The natures of liuing creatures, and the furies of wilde beasts. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 298 A large Camel raging with Lust for the Female..This Fury lasts Forty Days. 1727 Swift Gulliver ii. vii, Unable to defend himself from..the fury of wild beasts. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) IV. 288 In such a case, there was no method of appeasing its fury, but by giving it something to eat. |
2. Fierce impetuosity or violence;
esp. warlike rage, fierceness in conflict, attack, or the like.
† Rarely, fierce cruelty.
| 1534 Elyot tr. Isocrates' Doctr. Princes 9 b, Dooe thou nothyng in furie, sens other men knowe what time and occasion is meetest for the. 1553 Brende Q. Curtius iv. 42 b, Two thousand whome the furye of the slaughter had lefte on lyue. 1601 R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 41 In assaulting of tounes and fortresses, I confesse furie to be of great moment. 1630 Ibid. 13 If ever your eares heard of more hellish furies than those which these Princes have put in execution. 1712 Pope Spect. No. 408 ¶7 'Tis fit the Fury of the Coursers should not be too great for the Strength of the Charioteer. 1726 Adv. Capt. R. Boyle 155 The Fight continu'd half an Hour with the utmost Fury. 1769 Junius Lett. xv. 65 The extremes of alternate indolence or fury..have governed your whole administration. 1805 Scott Last Minstr. i. vii, The furies of the Border war. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Race Wks. (Bohn) II. 31 To hunt with fury..all the game that is in nature. |
b. Hist. the (Spanish) Fury: the massacre perpetrated by the Spaniards at Antwerp in Oct.–Nov. 1576.
| 1576 Heton Let. 10 Nov. in Arb. Garner VIII. 166 To answer and content the Spanish soldiers and others who, in the Fury, entered our said House. 1855 Motley Rise Dutch Repub. III. 116 It was called the Spanish Fury, by which dread name it has been known for ages. |
3. transf. of things (
e.g. of a tempest, the wind, a raging malady, etc.).
| 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. ii. xi. 46 b, In despite of the rayne, wind, and furye of the sea. 1599 R. Linche Anc. Fiction V ij a, Those places which, by the ardent furie of the sunnes vertue, become drie. 1662 Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. iii. iv. §5 These waters falling down with so much fury and violence. 1697 W. Dampier Voy. I. xiii. 348 Before the Winds abated of their fury. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 235 Had not the late unusuall Rain something allayed the Fury of the Heats. 1726 Adv. Capt. R. Boyle 127 Leaving their naked Bodies expos'd to the Fury of the Storm. 1742 Lond. & Country Brew. i. (ed. 4) 51 For retarding and keeping back any Drink that is too much heated in working..it may be broke into several other Tubs, where, by its shallow Lying, it will be taken off its Fury. 1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters I. 217 All his former complaints rage with more than double fury. 1887 Bowen Virg. æneid i. 69 Arm with fury the winds. |
b. phr. like fury: furiously, ‘like mad’.
colloq.| 1840 Longfellow in Life (1891) I. 359 The last eighteen miles it rained like fury. |
4. Inspired frenzy, as of one possessed by a god or demon;
esp. poetic ‘rage’. Now
rare.
| 1546 Langley Pol. Verg. de Invent. i. xix. 33 b, When they prophesie in manner of furie, and rauishinge of mynde. 1563 B. Googe Eglogs i. (Arb.) 32 O Cupyde kynge of fyerye Loue..with Furye fyll my brayne, That I may able be to tell, the cause of Louers payne. 1581 Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 72 They are so beloued of the Gods, that whatsoeuer they write, proceeds of a diuine fury. 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 35 This hath been a mightie musicall furie, which hath caused him to shewe such diuersitie in so small bounds. 1604 Shakes. Oth. iii. iv. 72 A Sybill..In her Prophetticke furie sow'd the Worke. 1676 Hobbes Iliad Pref. (1686) 5 The Sublimity of a Poet, which is that Poetical Fury which the Readers for the most part call for. 1703 Pope Thebais 3 A sacred fury fires My ravish'd breast, and all the Muse inspires. 1707 Curios, in Husb. & Gard. 74 All that Enthusiasm or poetick Fury could inspire. |
5. One of the avenging deities (L.
Furiæ,
Diræ,
Gr. Ἐρινύες, Εὐµενίδες), dread goddesses with snakes twined in their hair, sent from Tartarus to avenge wrong and punish crime: in later accounts, three in number (Tisiphone, Megæra, Alecto). Hence
gen. an avenging or tormenting infernal spirit.
| c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 2252 Philomela, The furies three with aile hir mortel brond. c 1386 ― Knt.'s T. 1826 Out of the ground a furie [v.rr. fyr(e, fir(e] infernal sterte. From Pluto sent, at requeste of Saturne. 1574 Mirr. Mag., Cordila xxiv, Art thou some fury sent? My wofull corps with paynes to more tormente? 1596 Spenser F.Q. iv. i. 26 For she at first was borne of hellish brood And by infernall furies nourished. 1614 Bp. Hall Recoll. Treat. 111 Thou shalt neuer want furies so long as thou hast thy selfe. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 620 Had not the folly of Man Let in these wastful Furies. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 137 ¶3 Thunder, Furies, and Damnation! I'll cut your Ears off. 1737 Whiston Josephus' Hist. vi. iii. §4 Be thou a fury [orig. Ἐρινύς] to these seditious varlets. 1838 Arnold Hist. Rome (1846) I. vii. 106 All prayed that the furies of her father's blood might visit her with vengeance. 1840 Macaulay Ess., Clive (1865) II. 104/1 He [Surajah Dowlah] sat gloomily in his tent, haunted, a Greek poet would have said, by the furies of those who had cursed him with their last breath in the Black Hole. |
b. Used for: One of the three ‘Fates’ or
Parcæ.
| 1637 Milton Lycidas 75 Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears And slits the thin-spun life. |
6. transf. One who is likened to an infernal spirit or minister of vengeance;
esp. a ferociously angry or malignant woman.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus v. 1498 And of the holy serpent, and the welle, And of the furies, al she gan him telle. a 1611 Beaum. & Fl. Philaster ii. iv, Come, sir, you put me to a woman's madness, The glory of a fury. 1611 Bible 2 Macc. vii. 9 Thou like a fury takest vs out of this present life. 1676 Dryden Aurengz. ii. Wks. 1883 V. 224 Remember, sir, your fury of a wife. 1687 T. Brown Saints in Uproar Wks. 1730 I. 73 Here's a termagant fury, St. Ursula by name. 1719 De Foe Crusoe i. xvi, He flew upon his murderers like a fury. 1768 Goldsm. Good-n. Man i. i, There was the old deaf dowager, as usual, bidding like a fury against herself. 1843 Macaulay Ess. Mad. D'Arblay (1865) II. 307/1 The card-table of the old Fury to whom she was tethered. 1873–4 Dixon Two Queens IV. xxi. v. 149 When the King's confessor went to Oxford, he was stoned by female furies in the Market Place. |
b. humorously, of things.
| 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. I. xv. 167 Facing the little lobster-red fury of a stove. |
7. attrib. and
Comb., as
fury-form,
fury rage;
fury-haunted,
fury-moving adjs;
fury-like adj. and
adv. † Also
fury fire,
app. a technical term for a white heat.
| 1644 Digby Nat. Bodies i. iii. 21 When the smith and the glassemender driue theire white and *fury fires (as they terme them). |
| 1866 Conington æneid viii. 282 There Catiline Hangs poised above the infernal deep With *Fury-forms behind. |
| 1735 Somerville Chase iii. 468 So the poor *Fury-haunted Wretch..still seems to hear The dying Shrieks. |
| 1600 Fairfax Tasso xvi. lviii, My angrie soule..*furie like in snakes and fire brands drest, Shall aie torment thee. 1711 Ken Hymns Evang. Poet. Wks. 1721 I. 49 All dream'd that Herod Fury-like appear'd. a 1748 Thomson Song, Come, gentle God of soft desire, Come, and possess my happy breast; Not, fury-like, in flames and fire, In rapture, rage, and nonsense, drest. |
| 1597 Daniel Civ. Wars iv. xlv, Forth⁓with, began these *fury-mouing sounds. |
| 1513 Douglas æneis xii. ii. 129 With sykkin *fury rage catchit is he. |
▪ II. † ˈfury, v. Obs. rare—1.
[f. prec. n.] refl. To drive oneself to fury, become infuriated.
| 1628 Feltham Resolves i. x. (1631) 29 As I would not neglect a suddaine good opportunity; so I would not fury my-selfe in the search. |
So
ˈfurying ppl. a., raging, moving with fury.
| a 1861 Clough Life & Duty vii, The wild sea's furying waters. |
▪ III. fury obs. form of
fiery.