convulse

From Latin convulsus, past participle of convellere (“to pluck up, dislocate, convulse”), from com- (“together”) + vellere (“to pluck, pull”). Doublet of convel.

• IPA^(key): /kənˈvʌls/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌls

convulse (third-person singular simple present convulses, present participle convulsing, simple past and past participle convulsed)

1. (intransitive) To suffer violent involuntary contractions of the muscles, causing one's body to contort.
   • 1999, Mona Lee, Alien Child, page 278:

     He realized she was crying. He could feel her body convulsing with little sobs and her cheek was wet where it brushed his.

2. (intransitive, figurative) To be beset by political or social upheaval.
   • 1988, Carroll Stuhlmueller, Rebuilding with Hope: A Commentary on the Books of Haggai and Zechariah, page 12:

     The Persian Empire was convulsing with intrigue, revolt, and civil war.

3. (transitive) To cause (someone) to suffer such contractions, especially as a result of making them laugh heartily.
   • 1882, William Montgomery Clemens, Famous Funny Fellows: Brief Biographical Sketches of American Humorists, pages 28–29:

     But while he was convulsing all London with laughter, he was fast falling a victim to consumption.

• convulsant
• convulsible
• convulsion
• convulsive

• “convulse”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E Smith, editors (1911), “convulse”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

convulse

1. feminine plural of convulso

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key):
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key):

convulse

1. vocative masculine singular of convulsus

convulse

1. inflection of convulsar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative