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WHIRLWIND
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A more or less vertical column of air whirling around itself as it moves over the surface of the Earth
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural phenomena
Hypernyms ("whirlwind" is a kind of...):
windstorm (a storm consisting of violent winds)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "whirlwind"):
dust devil (a miniature whirlwind strong enough to whip dust and leaves and litter into the air)
Context examples:
You are entering a breathless whirlwind of social activity by next month.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
They were twin whirlwinds of hatred, revolving about each other monstrously.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Yet it is in your power to recompense me, and deliver them from an evil which it only remains for you to make so great, that not only you and your family, but thousands of others, shall be swallowed up in the whirlwinds of its rage.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
He soon came to the seashore; and the water was quite black and muddy, and a mighty whirlwind blew over the waves and rolled them about, but he went as near as he could to the water’s brink.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
Buck multiplied himself, attacking from all sides, enveloping the herd in a whirlwind of menace, cutting out his victim as fast as it could rejoin its mates, wearing out the patience of creatures preyed upon, which is a lesser patience than that of creatures preying.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
It was the sublime abnegation of true love that comes to all lovers, and it came to him there, at the telephone, in a whirlwind of fire and glory; and to die for her, he felt, was to have lived and loved well.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
I have seen, he said, the most beautiful scenes of my own country; I have visited the lakes of Lucerne and Uri, where the snowy mountains descend almost perpendicularly to the water, casting black and impenetrable shades, which would cause a gloomy and mournful appearance were it not for the most verdant islands that relieve the eye by their gay appearance; I have seen this lake agitated by a tempest, when the wind tore up whirlwinds of water and gave you an idea of what the water-spout must be on the great ocean; and the waves dash with fury the base of the mountain, where the priest and his mistress were overwhelmed by an avalanche and where their dying voices are still said to be heard amid the pauses of the nightly wind; I have seen the mountains of La Valais, and the Pays de Vaud; but this country, Victor, pleases me more than all those wonders.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
