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VEHEMENCE
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Intensity or forcefulness of expression
Example:
his emphasis on civil rights
Synonyms:
emphasis; vehemence
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("vehemence" is a kind of...):
intensity; intensiveness (high level or degree; the property of being intense)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "vehemence"):
overemphasis (too much emphasis)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The property of being wild or turbulent
Example:
the storm's violence
Synonyms:
ferocity; fierceness; furiousness; fury; vehemence; violence; wildness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("vehemence" is a kind of...):
intensity; intensiveness (high level or degree; the property of being intense)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "vehemence"):
savageness; savagery (the property of being untamed and ferocious)
Derivation:
vehement (characterized by great force or energy)
Context examples:
“She must and she shall be ready,” cried Nelson, with extraordinary vehemence.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The mere vehemence of her words can convey, I am sensible, but a weak impression of the passion by which she was possessed, and which made itself articulate in her whole figure, though her voice, instead of being raised, was lower than usual.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Marianne's indignation burst forth as soon as he quitted the room; and as her vehemence made reserve impossible in Elinor, and unnecessary in Mrs. Jennings, they all joined in a very spirited critique upon the party.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
The vehemence of emotion, stirred by grief and love within me, was claiming mastery, and struggling for full sway, and asserting a right to predominate, to overcome, to live, rise, and reign at last: yes,—and to speak.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
That Mrs. Steerforth might not be induced to look behind her, and read, plainly written, what she was not yet prepared to know, I met her look quickly; but I had seen Rosa Dartle throw her hands up in the air with vehemence of despair and horror, and then clasp them on her face.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I have always faithfully observed the one, up to the very moment of bursting, sometimes with volcanic vehemence, into the other; and as neither present circumstances warranted, nor my present mood inclined me to mutiny, I observed careful obedience to St. John's directions; and in ten minutes I was treading the wild track of the glen, side by side with him.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
The manner in which he struggled through these inarticulate sentences, and, whenever he found himself getting near the name of Heep, fought his way on to it, dashed at it in a fainting state, and brought it out with a vehemence little less than marvellous, was frightful; but now, when he sank into a chair, steaming, and looked at us, with every possible colour in his face that had no business there, and an endless procession of lumps following one another in hot haste up his throat, whence they seemed to shoot into his forehead, he had the appearance of being in the last extremity.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
