Definitions

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

  • noun A violent windstorm, frequently accompanied by rain, snow, or hail.
  • noun Furious agitation, commotion, or tumult; an uproar.
  • transitive verb To cause a tempest around or in.
  • idiom (teacup/teapot) A great disturbance or uproar over a matter of little or no importance.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A very violent storm; an extensive current of wind, rushing with great velocity and violence, and commonly attended with rain, hail, or snow; a furious gale; a hurricane.
  • noun A violent tumult or commotion; perturbation; violent agitation: as, a tempest of the passions; a popular or political tempest.
  • To disturb violently, as by a tempest; rouse; throw into a state of commotion; agitate.
  • To descend as a tempest; be tempestuous; storm.

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

  • transitive verb obsolete To disturb as by a tempest.
  • noun An extensive current of wind, rushing with great velocity and violence, and commonly attended with rain, hail, or snow; a furious storm.
  • noun Fig.: Any violent tumult or commotion.
  • noun Archaic A fashionable assembly; a drum. See the Note under Drum, n., 4.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To storm.

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

  • noun A storm, especially one with severe winds.
  • noun Any violent tumult or commotion.
  • verb intransitive, rare To storm.
  • verb transitive To disturb, as by a tempest.

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

  • noun (literary) a violent wind
  • noun a violent commotion or disturbance

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old French tempeste, from Vulgar Latin *tempesta, variant of Latin tempestās, from tempus, time.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French tempeste (French: tempête), from Latin tempestas, storm, from tempus, time, weather

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