storm
Pluralstorms
Pluralstorms
Formsstorms, storming, stormed
- 1A period of violent or severe weather caused by a disturbance of the atmosphere, such as a low-pressure system, bringing strong winds and usually heavy rain, snow, or hail, often with thunder and lightning.
Forecasters warned that the storm would make landfall by midnight.
Huge waves crashed over the breakwater as the storm intensified offshore.
Oppositecalm
Note
The weather sense heads the word, but Old English storm was never only about weather. It already meant an attack, a storm of arrows, and disquiet, tumult or uproar. That is why the hail of blows and political upheaval feel native rather than borrowed. Tempest is the literary near-synonym, and Thomas Kyd's Cornelia (1594), translated from Garnier, has 'the windie storme' tossing a ship 'topside-turvey'.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Old English storm had both weather and non-weather senses, including attack, a storm of arrows, and tumult. en.wiktionary.org
- Cornelia was first published in 1594. gutenberg.org
- Thomas Kyd translated Cornelia from Robert Garnier's French play. gutenberg.org
- The play describes a windy storm tossing a ship topside-turvey; Cicero's speech compares Rome to that ship. gutenberg.org
- 2To move quickly and noisily, like a storm, usually in a state of anger or uproar.
She stormed out of the room, furious at the decision.
Frustrated employees storm out when their concerns are ignored.
UsageNeeds a direction: storm out of the room, storm off, storm in.
Similarstomp, stalk, flounce, march, stamp
Note
Anger is usual but not required. P. Ransome-Wallis, writing on German railways in 1960, recalls riding a locomotive as 'we stormed rapidly out', all power and noise. Tennyson in 1842 even describes music that 'Storm'd in orbs of song, a growing gale'.
- 3To attack a fortified place, building, or position suddenly and with force, rushing in to capture or take control of it.
Rebel forces stormed the palace and captured the capital within hours.
The general ordered his men to storm the enemy's last stronghold.
UsageThe place is the direct object: storm the castle, without a preposition.
Similarattack, assault, rush, charge
Oppositedefend
Note
The soldier's verb, and its object is a place: the breach, the fortress, the complex. Its verbal noun has its own fame in the storming of the Bastille. Matthew Prior's 1692 ode pairs 'to mount the trench, to storm the breach'.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The storming of the Bastille exemplifies the capture of a fortified place by force. en.wikipedia.org
- Matthew Prior's ode was published in 1692, in its original separate edition. eighteenthcenturypoetry.org
- Prior's ode contains the quoted pairing, with capitalization modernized. eighteenthcenturypoetry.org
- 4A violent disturbance within human society, whether a domestic, civil, or political upheaval.
The leaked memo touched off a storm in the capital.
Their marriage survived the storm that followed his decision to sell the family farm.
UsageA common combination is political storm. A storm in a teacup is a big fuss about something small.
Note
Shakespeare's Henry VI has a plotter vowing to 'stirre vp in England some black Storme'. Domestic rows count too: The Taming of the Shrew uses it for a sister's scolding. Tumult is the near equivalent. When what erupts is sound or speech rather than society, the sense shifts to an outburst of words or noise.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 2 contains this vow by the plotting Duke of York, in Act III, scene i. shakespeare.mit.edu
- The quotation's historical spelling is attested in the First Folio text. en.wiktionary.org
- The Taming of the Shrew uses storm for a sister's scolding: Tranio describes Bianca's sister Katherina in Act I, scene i. gutenberg.org
- 5A violent outbreak of sounds, speech, or thoughts, or a sudden outpouring of emotion.
The verdict provoked a storm of cheers and jeers in the courtroom.
A storm of grief broke over her the moment the music began.
UsageThe pattern is a storm of + what pours out: a storm of applause, protest or grief.
Similaroutburst, outpouring, flood, torrent, eruption
Note
Dryden's Persius mocks verse that is 'a storm of words, / Lab'ring with sound, that little Sence affords', where the phrase already means noise without content. Chapman's Odyssey has the Cyclops driving his flock 'with storms of whistlings'. In that line, sheer volume is the point, not anger.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Dryden’s translation of Persius contains the quoted lines mocking empty, noisy writing. en.wiktionary.org
- Chapman’s translation of the Odyssey describes the Cyclops driving his flock with the quoted words. gutenberg.org
- The whistling passage describes abundant sound during routine shepherding; the interpretation as volume rather than anger is supported by its context. gutenberg.org
- 6A violent assault aimed at capturing a fortified position or stronghold.
After weeks of siege, the rebels took the fort by storm and lost many men.
The commander chose a siege over a storm, hoping to starve the city out.
UsageMostly in take a place by storm. Take a city or audience by storm also means win it over quickly.
Less common meanings
- 7Of the weather, to be stormy (often with 'it' as the subject), with strong winds and usually rain, snow, hail, or thunder and lightning.
It had stormed for two days straight, and the river was close to flooding.
When it starts to storm in the mountains, hikers should stay off the high ridges.
Note
Here winter, the sea or a wind god is the subject, and the verb behaves like any other. Spenser's winter 'stormes with many a sturdy stoure'. Drayton's Boreas goes 'storming' from Shetland. This is close to the verb's origin, since Middle English stormen was said of the wind blowing violently.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Historical examples use the sea as the subject of storm. en.wiktionary.org
- Spenser uses the quoted words with personified winter as the subject. en.wiktionary.org
- Drayton describes Boreas storming in a passage beginning with Shetland. en.wiktionary.org
- The verb derives from Middle English stormen, used of wind blowing violently. en.wiktionary.org
- 8A heavy fall or outpouring of things, such as blows struck or objects hurled through the air.
A storm of bottles and stones rained down on the riot police.
The fighter weathered a storm of jabs before finding an opening.
UsageUsually a storm of + a plural noun: a storm of bullets, stones or punches.
Similarbarrage, hail, shower, volley, torrent
Note
Milton's Paradise Lost (1667) has a 'ratling storm of Arrows barbd with fire'. Scott's Harold the Dauntless (1817) has a 'storm of blows', which carries the image into hand-to-hand fighting. The figure is old: a storm of arrows was already part of the Old English word behind the weather sense.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- John Milton wrote Paradise Lost, first published in 1667. en.wikisource.org
- The first-edition title page of Paradise Lost bears the year 1667. en.wikisource.org
- Paradise Lost contains the quoted phrase about arrows. en.wikisource.org
- Walter Scott wrote Harold the Dauntless, first published in 1817. walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk
- Harold the Dauntless contains storm of blows in a description of close combat with a mace. en.wiktionary.org
- The ancestral Old English noun already included the sense storm of arrows. en.wiktionary.org
- 9To assault or seize control of someone's heart, mind, or feelings, as if by force.
Similarcapture, conquer, win, captivate, seize
Note
The siege moves inward. The object is now a heart or mind, but the verb keeps the shape of the assault on a stronghold. Often poetic, it can name failure as well as conquest. Thomas Morell's lyrics of 1750 declare that 'No Engines can a Tyrant find, / to storm the Truth-supported Mind'.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Thomas Morell wrote the lyrics containing the quotation, for Theodora. handelhendrix.org
- The lyrics were published in 1750. iucat.iu.edu
- The quoted words are accurate, with long s normalized. en.wiktionary.org
- 10To shout or speak angrily and violently; to rage at someone or utter harsh, abusive words.
The manager stormed at the staff over the missed deadline.
Whenever a deadline slips, the manager will storm at the staff and slam his fist on the desk.
UsageOften with at or against: he stormed at the staff. Unlike storm out, it is about speech, not movement.
Similarrage, rant, rail, thunder, shout
Note
Foxe's priests 'grudge and storme against' Tyndale in alehouses. Swift's Directions to Servants pairs it with a gentler verb: 'the master storms, the lady scolds'. Unlike storming out, this sense implies no movement. The angry person rages and fumes, as in The Merchant of Venice: 'Why looke you how you storme.'
- 11A spell of weather marked by frost, snow, or both.
Oppositethaw
Note
A dated use, recorded in Canada, Scotland and the US, in which storm means a stretch of hard winter rather than one violent event. Frost alone can qualify, with no wind at all. A reader today will likely take 'a long storm' as a single blizzard unless the context makes the season clear.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- This dated sense is recorded in Canada, Scotland and the US. en.wiktionary.org
- Storm can mean a period of winter weather consisting of frost, snow or both, without requiring wind. en.wiktionary.org
- 12Short for storm window: an extra window fitted inside or outside another to keep out cold and drafts.
Before winter, they installed a storm on each upstairs window.
The storms came off in April once the cold passed.
UsageUsed when windows are already the topic: put the storms up, take them down. Elsewhere, say storm windows.
Note
The full compound names a second window, originally detachable, that traps a layer of still air against hard winters. The short form is used chiefly in the plural: people put the storms up in the fall and take them down in spring.
- 13A violent surge of disease, pain, or physiological symptoms, arising as a paroxysm.
A storm of seizures swept through the patient within minutes.
Doctors worked to calm the cytokine storm that was damaging her lungs.
UsageUsually with a word naming what flares: cytokine storm, a storm of coughing.
Similarsurge, paroxysm, cascade, burst
Note
Paroxysm is the close technical equivalent. The looser, older use shows in the 1612 English Cervantes. There, a fit of sweating and swooning that 'endured about some two hours' is simply called 'this storme'.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Thomas Shelton's English translation of the first part of Cervantes's Don Quixote appeared in 1612. gla.ac.uk
- The passage describes sweating and swooning. en.wiktionary.org
- The narrator calls the episode a storm and says it lasted about two hours; the quotations preserve the wording with normalized letter forms. en.wiktionary.org
- 14A disturbed atmospheric state between a strong gale and a hurricane on the Beaufort scale, with winds of roughly 89 to 117 kilometers per hour.
On the Beaufort scale, a storm ranks at force ten or eleven.
The marine forecast called for a storm, with winds up to seventy miles an hour.
Note
Meteorology gives the word a number. Force 10 on the modern Beaufort scale is a storm or whole gale, at 55–63 miles per hour. Force 11 is a 'violent storm', at 64–72. The strong or severe gale sits below it, and the hurricane above. In a forecast, then, storm is a measurement, not a mood: the winds just below it are gales, however wild they feel.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 7 facts
- Beaufort force 10 is storm, with winds of 55–63 mph. rmets.org
- Whole gale is another name for Beaufort force 10. en.wiktionary.org
- Beaufort force 11 is violent storm, with winds of 64–72 mph. rmets.org
- Strong gale is below storm force; hurricane is above storm and violent storm. rmets.org
- Severe gale is an alternative designation for strong gale. weather.metoffice.gov.uk
- Hurricane is Beaufort force 12. rmets.org
- Forces 8 and 9 are gale and strong gale; still weaker winds include breezes and light air. weather.metoffice.gov.uk
- 15To stir up violent agitation or turbulence in someone or something, leaving a person disturbed and uneasy.
Meantime, our simulated thunderclaps / Which tell us counterfeited truths—these same / Are—sound, when music storms the soul, perhaps?
1878, Robert Browning, “The Two Poets of Croisic” - 16To remain exposed to harsh weather, especially severe cold.
- 17To catch up on lagging production output by making frenzied, all-out efforts.
- 18To protect cut seed-hay from stormy weather by gathering the sheaves into small stacks.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
From Middle English storm, from Old English storm meaning a tempest, attack, or tumult, from Proto-West Germanic *sturm and Proto-Germanic *sturmaz, ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European root *(s)twerH- meaning to agitate or stir up. It is related to 'stir' and has cognates such as German Sturm and Dutch storm.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- English storm descends through Middle English and Old English from Proto-West Germanic *sturm and Proto-Germanic *sturmaz. en.wiktionary.org
- Old English storm could mean a tempest, attack, or tumult. en.wiktionary.org
- The ultimate reconstructed root is Proto-Indo-European *(s)twerH-, meaning to agitate or stir up. en.wiktionary.org
- Storm is etymologically related to stir. en.wiktionary.org
- German Sturm and Dutch storm are cognates of English storm. en.wiktionary.org
The verb derives from Middle English stormen, meaning to blow violently or toss about, formed from the noun storm (see etymology 1) plus the infinitive suffix -en. A related Old English verb styrman ('to rage, shout') did not survive into modern English. Cognates include German stürmen and Dutch stormen.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- The verb derives from Middle English stormen, with the stated meanings, formed from the noun storm and the infinitive suffix -en. en.wiktionary.org
- The related Old English verb styrman meant to rage or shout. en.wiktionary.org
- The separate verb descended from Old English styrman did not survive into modern English. en.wiktionary.org
- German stürmen and Dutch stormen are cognates. en.wiktionary.org