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itation; 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.

Pertaining to, or having, convulsions; convulsionary. [R.] Lamb.

Pertaining to convulsion; convulsive. "Convulsionary struggles." Sir W. Scott.

One who has convulsions; esp., one of a body of fanatics in France, early in the eighteenth century, who went into convulsions under the influence of religious emotion; as, the Convulsionists of St. Médard.

Good against convulsions. J. Floyer.

A medicine which prevents or allays spasms or convulsions.

Producing, or attended with, convulsions or spasms; characterized by convulsions; convulsionary. An irregular, convulsive movement may be necessary to throw off an irregular, convulsive disease. Burke.

A fancied perception of flashes of light, a symptom of epilepsy; hence, epilepsy itself; convulsions.

Producing epilepsy or epileptoid convulsions; -- applied to areas of the body or of the nervous system, stimulation of which produces convulsions.

Resembling epilepsy; as, epileptoid convulsions.

ent attack of a disorder; a stroke of disease, as of epilepsy or apoplexy, which produces convulsions or unconsciousness; a convulsion; a paroxysm; hence, a period of exacerbation of a disease; in general, an attack of disease; as, a fit of sickness. And when the fit was on him, I did mark How he did shake. Shak.…

ing difficulty in deglutition, and a marked heightening of reflex excitability, producing convulsions whenever the patient attempts to swallow, or is disturbed in any way, as by the sight or sound of water; rabies; canine madness. [Written also hydrophoby.]

se resembling hysteria in its nature, and characterized by the occurrence of epileptiform convulsions, which can often be controlled or excited by pressure on the ovaries, and upon other definite points in the body. -- Hys`ter*o*ep`i*lep"tic, a.

ury to certain Calvinistic Methodists in Wales whose worship was characterized by violent convulsions.

) found in the common mussel. It either causes paralysis of the muscles, or gives rise to convulsions, including death by an accumulation of carbonic acid in the blood.

lieves pain, and produces sleep; but which, in poisonous doses, produces stupor, coma, or convulsions, and, when given in sufficient quantity, causes death. The best examples are opium (with morphine), belladonna (with atropine), and conium. Nercotykes and opye (opium) of Thebes. Chaucer.

Any sudden and violent emotion; spasmodic passion or action; a convulsion; a fit. The returning paroxysms of diffidence and despair. South.

rmuting; exchange of the thing for another; mutual transference; interchange. The violent convulsions and permutations that have been made in property. Burke.

The mildest form of epilepsy, with momentary faintness or unconsciousness, but without convulsions; -- opposed to grand mal.

hake, vibrate, or quiver, either from not being solid, as soft, wet land, or from violent convulsion of any kind; as, the earth quakes; the mountains quake. " Over quaking bogs." Macaulay.