Search the Dictionary

Disturbed or violent motion; agitation. [What] commotion in the winds! Shak.

tate of being agitated; the state of being moved with violence, or with irregular action; commotion; as, the sea after a storm is in agitation.

Commotion; disturbance. "Those mighty feats which made such a clatter in story." Barrow.

Any violent and irregular motion or agitation; a violent shaking; a tumult; a commotion. Those two massy pillars, With horrible convulsion, to and fro He tugged, he shook, till down they came. Milton. Times of violence and convulsion. Ames.

Violent agitation in the body politic; public commotion; tumult. The disturbance was made to support a general accusation against the province. Bancroft.

es. -- To bite the dust. See under Bite, v. t. -- To raise, or kick up, dust, to make a commotion. [Colloq.] -- To throw dust in one's eyes, to mislead; to deceive. [Colloq.]

A kind of natural ebullition; that commotion of a fluid which takes place when some part of the mass flies off in a gaseous form, producing innumerable small bubbles; as, the effervescence of a carbonate with citric acid.

To throw into confusion or commotion by contention or discord; to entangle in a broil or quarrel; to make confused; to distract; to involve in difficulties by dissension or strife. The royal house embroiled in civil war. Dryden.

whelming hostile movement of armed men from one country to another. Milton. (c) A violent commotion. All Paris was quiet . . . to gather fresh strength for the next day's eruption. W. Irving.

The act of estuating; commotion, as of a fluid; agitation. The estuations of joys and fears. W. Montagu.

Commotion. [Obs.] Chapman.

Violent agitation; commotion; bustle; hurry. The racket and flurry of London. Blakw. Mag.

To be agitated; to be in violent commotion; to rankle; as, rancor frets in the malignant breast.

Excitement; commotion; enthusiasm.

to the welfare of one's family. It was a law of Solon, that any person who, in the civil commotions of the republic, remained neuter, or an indifferent spectator of the contending parties, should be condemned to perpetual banishment. Addison.

king; like a kingdom. [R.] "Twixt his mental and his active parts, Kingdom'd Achilles in commotion rages And batters down himself. Shak.

Violent commotion; tumult; strife. [Obs.] o raise a mutiny betwixt yourselves. Shak. Mutiny act (Law), an English statute reënacted annually to punish mutiny and desertion. Wharton.

Possessing or enjoying peace; not disturbed by war, tumult, agitation, anxiety, or commotion; quiet; tranquil; as, a peaceful time; a peaceful country; a peaceful end.

Especially, one who, in times of persecution or political commotion, flees to a foreign power or country for safety; as, the French refugees who left France after the revocation of the edict of Nantes.

To oughen or disturb the surface of; to make uneven by agitation or commotion. The fantastic revelries . . . that so often ruffled the placid bosom of the Nile. I. Taylor. She smoothed the ruffled seas. Dryden.