Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Characterized by violent emotions or actions; tumultuous.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or resembling a tempest.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Very stormy; turbulent; rough with wind; stormy: as, a tempestuous night. Also used figuratively.
  • Subject to fits of stormy passion; impetuous.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to a tempest; involving or resembling a tempest; turbulent; violent; stormy

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of, or resembling a tempest; stormy, tumultuous.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective (of the elements) as if showing violent anger
  • adjective characterized by violent emotions or behavior

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Late Latin tempestuōsus, from tempestūs, tempest, variant of tempestās; see tempest.]

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Examples

  • Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is past the ocean is flat again.

    Matthew Yglesias » Amar Bhide, WSJ Edit Page, Embrace Regular Recurrence of Massive Recessions 2009

  • You spend most of the time with head immersed in tempestuous waters, constantly pulled and kicked by other swimmers, getting fingers jammed in lane lines and heads slammed at the end of the pool during backstroke sets.

    Archive 2007-05-01 Celeste Winant 2007

  • You spend most of the time with head immersed in tempestuous waters, constantly pulled and kicked by other swimmers, getting fingers jammed in lane lines and heads slammed at the end of the pool during backstroke sets.

    Making it work-out Celeste Winant 2007

  • All his mighty forces he now brought to bear against the oncoming canoe; he swept great hurricanes about the stony ledges; he caused the sea to beat and swirl in tempestuous fury along its narrow fastnesses; but the canoe came nearer and nearer, invincible as those shores, and stronger than death itself.

    Legends of Vancouver 1911

  • They engaged in tempestuous weather; and the tumultuary conflict was continued from the dawn to the extinction of light.

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206

  • 45 The fleet of galleys and transports sailed in tempestuous weather from the port of Pisa, in

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206

  • Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is past the ocean is flat again. even though he wrote those words in A Tract on Monetary Reform in 1923 (regarding the playing out of inflation, which Keynes’ Classical peers said would resolve itself soon enough) and not during or about the Depression.

    Matthew Yglesias » Amar Bhide, WSJ Edit Page, Embrace Regular Recurrence of Massive Recessions 2009

  • When he was not affectionately coercing people into buying things they did not need, he stood at the back of the store, glowing, abstracted, feeling masculine as he recalled the tempestuous surprises of love revealed by Vida.

    Main Street 2004

  • Since regaining consciousness, pain, thirst, and hunger permitting, Wayne had spent the last few hours working his way through the Bach suites numerically, and doing rather well, too, until he got stuck on number five, the one Casals called the tempestuous suite.

    Fear Itself Jonathan Nasaw 2003

  • When he was not affectionately coercing people into buying things they did not need, he stood at the back of the store, glowing, abstracted, feeling masculine as he recalled the tempestuous surprises of love revealed by Vida.

    Main Street 1920

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