Tem"pest (?), n. [OF. tempeste, F. tempete, (assumed) LL. tempesta, fr. L. tempestas a portion of time, a season, weather, storm, akin to tempus time. See Temporal of time.]
1.
An extensive current of wind, rushing with great velocity and violence, and commonly attended with rain, hail, or snow; a furious storm.
[We] caught in a fiery tempest, shall be hurled,
Each on his rock transfixed.
Milton.
2.
Fig.: Any violent tumult or commotion; as, a political tempest; a tempest of war, or of the passions.
3.
A fashionable assembly; a drum. See the Note under Drum, n., 4.
[Archaic]
Smollett.
⇒ Tempest is sometimes used in the formation of self-explaining compounds; as, tempest-beaten, tempest-loving, tempest-tossed, tempest-winged, and the like.
Syn. -- Storm; agitation; perturbation. See Storm.
© Webster 1913.
Tem"pest, v. t. [Cf. OF. tempester, F. tempeter to rage.]
To disturb as by a tempest.
[Obs.]
Part huge of bulk
Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait,
Tempest the ocean.
Milton.
© Webster 1913.
Tem"pest, v. i.
To storm.
[Obs.]
B. Jonson.
© Webster 1913.