Log in or Sign up
  1. maelstrom love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A violent or turbulent situation: caught in the maelstrom of war.
  2. n. A whirlpool of extraordinary size or violence.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A celebrated whirlpool or violent current in the Arctic ocean, near the western coast of Norway, between the islands Moskenäsö and Mosken, formerly supposed to suck in and destroy everything that approached it at any time, but now known not to be dangerous except under certain conditions.
  2. n. Hence Any resistless movement; any influence or passion which makes victims of all who come within its power: as, the maelstrom of fashion or of speculation; the maelstrom of dissipation or of crime.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A large and violent whirlpool.
  2. n. Any violent or turbulent situation.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A celebrated whirlpool on the coast of Norway. any large or powerful whirlpool.
  2. n. An uncontrollable agitated or confusedly disordered state or situation.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a powerful circular current of water (usually the result of conflicting tides)

Etymologies

  1. Old Dutch maelstrom, modern Dutch spelling maalstroom. → Danish malstrøm. → English maelstrom. Dutch malen ("to whirl, grind") is from Old Norse mala ("to grind"). Dutch stroom means stream. Compare German Mahlstrom. (Wiktionary)
  2. Obsolete Dutch : Dutch malen, to grind, whirl (from Middle Dutch; see melə- in Indo-European roots) + Dutch stroom, stream (from Middle Dutch; see sreu- in Indo-European roots). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

Show 10 more examples...

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘maelstrom’.

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • librarymistress "in this cruel place your voice above the maelstrom" (Sisters of Mercy: "Marian") Feb 5, 2009

  • brtom The president is about to escalate himself into a full-scale maelstrom.

    Joseph Duemer, Sharp Sand Dec 22, 2006

Tweets

Looking for tweets for maelstrom.

‘maelstrom’ has been looked up 6293 times, loved by 26 people, added to 173 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 13.