Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A violent or turbulent situation: caught in the maelstrom of war.
- n. A whirlpool of extraordinary size or violence.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- 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.
- 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
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A celebrated whirlpool on the coast of Norway. any large or powerful whirlpool.
- n. An uncontrollable agitated or confusedly disordered state or situation.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a powerful circular current of water (usually the result of conflicting tides)
Etymologies
- 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)
- 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
“What would it be like to view that maelstrom from a nearby system?”
The SF Fanatic: SF Explores The Ideas Mainstream Fiction Won't
“Baldwin honestly tries to describe the result, but expressive insight into that emotional maelstrom is not a power within his possession and is not really on offer here.”
“Catapulting Jackson into the eye of the maelstrom was his explosively creative pairing with another multi-faceted industry legend, Quincy Jones.”
Gail Mitchell: Michael Jackson's Unparalleled Musical Legacy
“What one historian has called a maelstrom of retaliation and counter-retaliation built to a howling crescendo.”
“As a matter of fact the maelstrom is a whirlpool lying where Poe places it, and it has been made noted by many other accounts than this of Poe, most of which are exaggerated, but none of them so brilliant in execution as”
“Every time we pass through the Atlantic Avenue maelstrom, which is twelve times a week, we see, as plain as print, the beginning of two magazine tales.”
Plum Pudding Of Divers Ingredients, Discreetly Blended & Seasoned
“My other chip from the maelstrom was a lad half grown.”
“You're gonna bring this jury into what is already fairly described as a maelstrom of media activity, and it's not going to get any better," he says.”
“And smack dab in the middle of the maelstrom is the current governor, Milorad "Rod" R. Blagojevich, proud Serbian-American.”
“Bacigalupi also prognosticates a likely future of media giants, not only technically (where hit rates are visually tracked in a "maelstrom" of living blobs of color), but also at a meta-level, where the information is a living, breathing thing that is tailored to the lowest common denominator of interest.”
REVIEW: The Year's Best Science Fiction #26 edited by Gardner Dozois
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘maelstrom’.
-
GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
-
GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
-
GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
-
Words from Blood Meridian
visage, affray, scullery, miasma, mirth, purlieu, tacit, benighted, wickiup, corral, amble, accoutre and 210 more...
-
EN-HU - important words for a HU inte...
Words only (I left out the expressions) from Geza Kerenyi's EN-HU interpreters' dictionary. Most of them pose some difficulty when interpreted between HU and EN in either or both directions.
abalone, abrasive, abstractionist, abstruse, abysmal, academia, accessibility, accessible, acclimate, accolade, accompanist, achiever and 1469 more...
-
Genes
Interesting gene names. Some of these may have changed recently (to something less offensive/funny).
http://www.genenames.org/
tinman, agnostic, dreadlocks, Van Gogh, fruitless, lava lamp, ariadne, cheap date, ken and barbie, I'm not dead yet, I'm not dead yet 2, manic fringe and 1192 more... -
wallace
Remington, Windsor, prorector, wen, aver, mottle, seltzer, tepee, lapidary, effete, sotto, presbyopia and 355 more...
-
Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
-
Words For Novel (Part 2)
fable, sprite, syphilitic, anvil, wonderstruck, vertigo, bridled, tufted, fettered, savvy, tweed fedora, tryst and 255 more...
-
What Goes Around
ambitus, revolver, circus, roundabout, circle, merry-go-round, gyrate, spiral, cycle, circumnavigate, encyclical, revolution and 7 more...
-
gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1826 more...
-
♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
-
ICE
quincunx, adoxography, panjundrum, breloque, surd, scripturient, rousant, favrile, embouchure, aquarelle, griffonage, sussultatory and 234 more...
-
List Erine
cool mint antiseptic
shalom, cattywampus, bourgeoisie, aerophile, traverse, grotto, epicurean, ex cathedra, nautilus, epitaph, lathe, continuum and 753 more...
-
NTDW1
template, modal, sublingual, tandem, polycentric, septuagenarian, token, irrevocable, denotive, augural, aberrant, phlebotomy and 1188 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for maelstrom.
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