tempestuous

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English

Etymology

From Middle English tempestuous, tempestious, variants of tempestous, from Old French tempesteus, tempestos, tempestuose, from Latin tempestuōsus, equivalent to tempest +‎ -uous.

Adjective

tempestuous (comparative more tempestuous, superlative most tempestuous)

  1. Of, or resembling, a tempest; stormy, tumultuous.
    Synonyms: blustery, windy
    • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
      [On a ship at sea]: a tempestuous noise of thunder and lightening heard.
    • 1692 December 15, Richard Bentley, A Confutation of Atheism from the Origin and Frame of the World. The Third and Last Part. , London: H Mortlock , published 1693, →OCLC, pages 25–26:
      [T]he Months of March and September, the tvvo Æquinoxes of Our year, are the moſt vvindy and tempeſtuous, the moſt unſettled and unequable of Seaſons in moſt Countries of the VVorld.
    • 1904 July, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905, →OCLC:
      It was a wild, tempestuous night towards the close of November. [] Outside the wind howled down Baker Street, while the rain beat fiercely against the windows. It was strange there in the very depths of the town, with ten miles of man's handiwork on every side of us, to feel the iron grip of Nature, and to be conscious that to the huge elemental forces all London was no more than the molehills that dot the fields.

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