Search the Dictionary

To contend; to strive violently; to fight. "Lusts which war against the soul." 1 Pet. ii. 11.

Violent; vehement; furious; excited; passionate; as, a warm contest; a warm debate. Welcome, daylight; we shall have warm work on't. Dryden.

A light rain; a shower. [Obs.] Wyclif. Stress of weather, violent winds; force of tempests. -- To make fair weather, to flatter; to give flattering representations. [R.] -- To make good, or bad, weather (Naut.), to endure a gale well or ill; -- said of a vessel. Shak. -- Under the weather, ill; also, financially emba…

A violent windstorm of limited extent, as the tornado, characterized by an inward spiral motion of the air with an upward current in the center; a vortex of air. It usually has a rapid progressive motion. The swift dark whirlwind that uproots the woods. And drowns the villages. Bryant.

a. & n. from Whoop, v. t. Whooping cough (Med.), a violent, convulsive cough, returning at longer or shorter intervals, and consisting of several expirations, followed by a sonorous inspiration, or whoop; chin cough; hooping cough. Dunglison. -- Whooping crane (Zoöl.), a North American crane (Crus Americana) noted for…

A violent and peremptory procedure without any assigned reason; a sudden conclusive happening. [Obs.] When the church Was taken with a why-not in the lurch. Hudibras. This game . . . was like to have been lost with a why-not. Nugæ Antiq.

Not submitted to restraint, training, or regulation; turbulent; tempestuous; violent; ungoverned; licentious; inordinate; disorderly; irregular; fanciful; imaginary; visionary; crazy. "Valor grown wild by pride." Prior. "A wild, speculative project." Swift. What are these So withered and so wild in their attire Shak. W…

sease of sheep, in which the intestines are distended with air, or rather affected with a violent inflammation. It occurs immediately after shearing.

wind, as fruit from a tree, or the tree itself, or a portion of a forest prostrated by a violent wind, etc. "They became a windfall upon the sudden." Bacon.

To make worse; to put disadvantage; to discomfit; to worst. See Worst, v. Weapons more violent, when next we meet, May serve to better us and worse our foes. Milton.

Violent anger; vehement exasperation; indignation; rage; fury; ire. Wrath is a fire, and jealousy a weed. Spenser. When the wrath of king Ahasuerus was appeased. Esther ii. 1. Now smoking and frothing Its tumult and wrath in. Southey.

A violent twist, or a pull with twisting. He wringeth them such a wrench. Skelton. The injurious effect upon biographic literature of all such wrenches to the truth, is diffused everywhere. De Quincey.

n; to twist; esp., to twist or extort by violence; to pull of force away by, or as if by, violent wringing or twisting. "The secret wrested from me." Milton. Our country's cause, That drew our swords, now secret wrests them from our hand. Addison. They instantly wrested the government out of the hands of Hastings. Maca…