▪ I. tempest, n.
(ˈtɛmpɪst)
Forms: 3– tempest; also 3–6 tempeste, 4–5 tempast, -e.
[a. OF. tempeste, fem. (11th c. in Roland) = It., Prov. tempesta:—pop. L. *tempesta-m, for cl. L. tempestās, -ātem season, weather, storm, f. tempus a time, a season; also a. OF. tempest masc. (13th c. in Godef.) = Prov. tempest:—L. *tempestum. OF. had also *tempeste, acc. sing. tempesté, pl. tempestez (12th c.) = Sp. tempestád, Pg. tempestade, It. -ate, -ade,:—L. temˈpestās, tempestā-t-em.]
1. a. A violent storm of wind, usually accompanied by a downfall of rain, hail, or snow, or by thunder.
| c 1250 Old Kentish Serm. in O.E. Misc. 32 So hi were in þo ssipe so a-ros a great tempeste of winde. 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 1151 Hor folc hii lore in þe se þoru tempest [v.r. tempeste] moni on. a 1300 Cursor M. 6027 (Cott.) Israel for þis tempest [Gött. tempast] Was noþer harmed, man ne beist. 13.. K. Alis. 5810 (Bodl. MS.) Þe wederes stronge and tempestes Þat hem duden grete molestes. c 1386 Chaucer Manciple's T. 197 Euere crie agayn tempest and rayn. 1390 Gower Conf. III. 203 A cruel king lich the tempeste, The whom no Pite myhte areste. c 1400 Destr. Troy 12467 Trees thurgh tempestes, tynde hade þere leues. 1535 Coverdale 2 Kings ii. 1 Whan the Lorde was mynded to take vp Elias in the tempest. 1665 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 389 Seven whole dayes and nights this tempest lasted. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 608 A Station safe for Ships, when Tempests roar. 1815 J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art II. 46 In some places the time of change is attended with calms, in others..with violent tempests. 1856 Stanley Sinai & Pal. i. §3. 68 The whole air filled..with a tempest of sand driving in your face like sleet. |
b. A thunder-storm.
U.K. dial. and
North-eastern N. Amer.| c 1532 G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 946/1 To be killed with tempest, fouldroier. 1712 Hearne Collect. 30 June (O.H.S.) III. 408 We were forc'd by a tempest to stop at Yarnton. 1839 G. Bird Nat. Phil. 212 Several instances have occurred of the fatal effects of a tempest..at a considerable distance from the spot..where the violence of the lightning appeared to have been chiefly exerted. c 1860 Northamp. Dial., It's very still and black. I think we shall have a tempest to-night. 1877 R. T. Cooke in Harper's Mag. Jan. 297/1 Ominous flashes of tempest began to play about the far horizon. 1883 Hampsh. Gloss., Tempest, a thunder-storm. 1892 Dialect Notes I. 211 Tempest, a thunder-shower. [Plymouth, Massachusetts.] 1951 Amer. Speech XXVI. 251 Such localized terms as..the southeastern New England tempest (thunderstorm)... Tempest was recorded from a Schuylerville (Saratoga Co.) informant, definitely conscious of his ultimate Nantucket ancestry. 1965 E. Richardson Living Island 171 August is also the month of tempests (for here [in Nova Scotia] electrical storms keep the name used by Shakespeare). |
2. transf. and
fig. a. A violent commotion or disturbance; a tumult, rush; agitation, perturbation.
tempest in a tea-pot: see
tea-pot n.| c 1315 Shoreham vii. 642 Þat best..þat hyt hedde ine hym y-nome Soche a tempeste. 13.. Guy Warw. (A.) 273 Now is Gij in gret tempest, Sorwe he makeþ wiþ þe mest. 1472 Coventry Leet Bk. 373 The gret tempestes diuisions & troubles that in late daies haue be in this our Reaume. 1588 Shakes. Tit. A. i. i. 458 Cheere the heart, That dies in tempest of thy angry frowne. 1606 S. Gardiner Bk. Angling 12 Waues of tribulation, tempests of tentations. 1770 Burke Corr. (1844) I. 243 In the midst of all this tempest the ministers..seem much at their ease. 1894 H. Nisbet Bush Girl's Rom. 61 Helen Craven was very pale and very silent during this parental tempest. 1909 Daily Chron. 3 Dec. 1/2 This fine passage..drew a tempest of cheering. |
† b. Calamity, misfortune, trouble.
Obs.| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 16541 Moryne & hunger..had reft..al þe folk wyþ tempest vnkynde. c 1470 Henry Wallace vii. 394 For sleuth nor sleip sall nayne remayne in me, Off this tempest till I a wengeance se. |
3. a. A confused or tumultuous throng;
† a crowded assembly:
cf. hurricane 2 b (
obs.); a rushing or tearing crowd.
| 1746 Smollett Advice 30 note, Not unaptly styled a drum, from the noise and emptiness of the entertainment. There are also drum-major, rout, tempest, and hurricane, differing only in degrees of multitude and uproar. 1755 J. Shebbeare Lydia (1769) II. 309 How to spend their hours in London more agreeably than in routs, drums, huricanes, and tempests. 1866 Carlyle in Morning Star 5 Apr. 5/5 It turned out to be a tempest of wild horses, managed by young lads who had a turn for hunting with their grooms. |
b. A person of stormy temper.
| 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xxiii, Henrique is a regular little tempest—his mother and I have given him up long ago. |
† 4. A time; a period, an occasion. (A verbalism of translation.)
Obs.| 1382 Wyclif 2 Chron. xxviii. 9 In that tempest [Vulg. ea tempestate] was ther a prophete of the Lord. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 337 In þat tempest [sub ea tempestate] went out þat man þat heet Liber pater. |
5. attrib. and
Comb. a. simple
attrib., as
tempest-anger,
tempest-cloud,
tempest-pitch,
tempest-rack (
rack n.1 3),
tempest-shock,
tempest-speed,
tempest-spirit,
tempest-time;
b. instrumental, etc., as
tempest-beaten,
tempest-blown,
tempest-born,
tempest-charged,
tempest-driven,
tempest-flung,
tempest-harrowed,
tempest-haunted,
tempest-rent,
tempest-rocked,
tempest-shaken,
tempest-shattered,
tempest-smitten,
tempest-swept,
tempest-throttled,
tempest-torn,
tempest-troubled,
tempest-winged,
tempest-worn adjs.; also
tempest-tossed;
c. objective, etc., as
tempest-bearing,
tempest-clear,
tempest-cleaving,
tempest-loving,
tempest-proof,
tempest-scoffing,
tempest-walking adjs.; also
tempest-raiser.
| 1898 W. Watson Poems, Tomb of Burns, Byron's *tempest-anger, tempest-mirth. |
| 1747 Dunkin in Francis's tr. Horace, Ep. ii. ii. 307 Nor yet expos'd to *Tempest-bearing Strife. |
| 1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. v. 433 The *tempest-beaten Vessel's stern. 1759 Johnson Rasselas xxi, I rejoiced like a tempest-beaten sailor at his entrance into the harbour. |
| 1865 Baring-Gould Werewolves x. 177 To leave the summer cirrus and turn to the *tempest-born rain-cloud. |
| 1826 J. G. Whittier Vale of Merrimac in Free Press (Newburyport, Mass.) 29 June 4/1 And the *tempest-charg'd vapor their tall tops embraces. |
| 1868 M. Collins Sweet Anne Page I. 149 Always the white sky should be *tempest-clear. |
| 1818 Shelley Rosalind & Helen (1819) 77 That a *tempest-cleaving swan Of the songs of Albion..Found a nest in Thee. |
| 1849 tr. De la Motte Fouque's Sir Elidoc 166 His *tempest-driven heart. |
| 1776 Mickle tr. Camoens' Lusiad 80 On many a *tempest-harrowed ocean tost. |
| 1880 Longfellow Ultima Thule 7 Are not these The *tempest-haunted Hebrides, Where sea-gulls scream? |
| 1727–46 Thomson Summer 1123 The *tempest-loving raven scarce Dares wing the dubious dusk. |
| 1660 Bond Scut. Reg. 403 Like one Ship..*tempest-proof upon a troubled Sea. |
| 1844 Lowell Legend of Brittany ii. xi, Before its eyes the sullen *tempest-rack Would fade. |
| 1877 tr. Lacroix's Sc. & Lit. Mid. Ages (1878) 225 A special class of sorcerers called *tempest-raisers. |
| 1822 T. Mitchell Aristoph. I. 186 Must I be thus *tempest-rent? |
| c 1820 S. Rogers Italy, Camp. Florence 176 Now *tempest-rocked, now whirling round and round. |
| 1817 Shelley Laon i. 23 The *tempest-shaken wood, The waves, the fountains, and the hush of night. |
| 1845 Longfellow Seaweed vii, in Poems 99 From the wreck of Hopes far-scattered, *Tempest-shattered, Floating waste and desolate. |
| 1837 Spirit of the Woods 84 Mid sorrow's *tempest-shock. |
| 1844 J. G. Whittier Bridal of Pennacook in United States Mag. Sept. 239 Sometimes The *tempest-smitten tree receives From one small root the sap which climbs Its topmost spray and crowning leaves. |
| 1854 J. S. C. Abbott Napoleon (1855) II. iv. 79 Struggling along the drifted and *tempest-swept defile. |
| 1633 Ford Broken H. iv. ii, Like *tempest-threaten'd trees unfirmly rooted. |
| 1930 R. Campbell Adamastor 51 Doomed vessels..Reared to the stars their *tempest-throttled cry. |
| 1598 Drayton Heroic Ep., Brandon to Q. Mary 77 After long trauaile, *tempest-torne and wrack'd. 1918 W. S. Churchill in M. Gilbert Winston S. Churchill (1977) IV. Compan. i. 418 Prompt and clear must be those great decisions which assign definite limits to the increasing confusion and miseries of the vanquished and above the tempest-torn waters light again the beacons of mankind. 1939 R. Campbell Flowering Rifle ii. 64 The wide-winged and wounded Albatross The tempest-torn that rides (and bears) the strife. |
| 1825 Richardson Sonnets 141, I marked the *tempest-troubled wave. 1952 R. Campbell tr. Baudelaire's Poems 183 She sought, with tempest-troubled gaze, the skies Of her first innocence. |
| 1820 Shelley Prometh. Unb. i. 35 These are Jove's *tempest-walking hounds. |
| 1727–46 Thomson Summer 344 Till, *tempest-wing'd, Fierce Winter sweeps them from the face of day. |
▪ II. tempest, v. (
ˈtɛmpɪst,
† tɛmˈpɛst)
[ad. OF. tempeste-r (12th c.), f. tempeste: see prec.] 1. trans. To affect by or as by a tempest; to throw into violent commotion, to agitate violently.
| 1390 Gower Conf. II. 167 And whan hir list the Sky tempeste, The reinbowe is hir Messager. c 1430 Pilgr. Lyf Manhode iv. i. (1869) 174 Tempested it was gretliche, of gret tempestes and of wyind. 1480 Caxton Ovid's Met. xi. xix, The wyndes..renne so radely, that nothing may lette them to tempeste alle the see. 1638 Penit. Conf. (1657) 346 Rooted most when most tempested. 1667 Milton P.L. vii. 412 Fish..part huge of bulk Wallowing unweildie, enormous in thir Gate, Tempest the Ocean. 1715–20 Pope Iliad xxi. 30 The huge dolphin tempesting the main. 1830 H. N. Coleridge Grk. Poets (1834) 129 As when two winds—the north and west..suddenly tempest the sea. 1857 H. Miller Test. Rocks iii. 137 Its wonderful whales..of the reptilian class..must have tempested the deep. |
2. fig. To disturb violently (a person, the mind).
| c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. ii. pr. iv. 28 (Camb. MS.), I haue som what conforted the so þat thow tempest the nat thus with al thi fortune. a 1415 Lydgate Temple of Glas 1157 For no turment, þat þe fallen shal, Tempest þe not. 1521 Fisher Serm. Luther Wks. (1876) 312 Ioannes wiccliff with other moo which sore tempested the chyrche. 1621 T. Williamson tr. Goulart's Wise Vieillard 25 Tempested with disordered thoughts and vnruly passions. 1762 Goldsm. Cit. W. xlvii, A mind..tempested up by a thousand various passions. 1819 Campbell Spec. Brit. Poets I. 164 A man..has hardly tied the fatal knot when his house is tempested by female eloquence. |
3. intr. Of the wind, weather, etc., and
impers.: To be tempestuous, to blow tempestuously; to rage, storm. Also
fig. dial. or
arch.| c 1477 Caxton Jason 56 Sone after the winde began to rise and tempest horrible and impetuouse. 1530 Palsgr. 754/1 Herde you nat howe it tempested to nyght? 1601 B. Jonson Poetaster v. i, Other Princes..Thunder, and tempest, on those learned heads, Whom Caesar with such honour doth aduance. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 207 (tr. Ovid's Met. xi. 521) Blind night in darkness tempests. 1875 W. D. Parish Dict. Sussex Dial. 119 It tempestes so as we're troubled to pitch the hay upon to the stack anyhows in the wurreld. a 1907 F. Thompson Works (1913) I. 120 Flew spurned the pebbled stars: those splendours then Had tempested on earth, star upon star. |
Hence
ˈtempested ppl. a., tossed or afflicted by a tempest;
ˈtempesting vbl. n.| a 1631 Donne Serm. xxxvii. (1640) 366 No repentance [can] stay his tempested and weather-beaten conscience. 1811 Shelley St. Irvyne ix. Pr. Wks. 1888 I. 196 And the moon dimly gleam'd through the tempested air. 1846 Trench Miracles iv, The Church of Christ has evermore resembled this tempested bark. 1882 Myers Renewal of Youth 288 Rocked by strange blast and stormy tempestings. |