Tem″pest (?), n. [OF. tempeste, F. tempête, (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.
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. 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.