PAROXYSM • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Paroxysm

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noun

Paroxysm n.

(Med.) The fit, attack, or exacerbation, of a disease that occurs at intervals, or has decided remissions or intermissions.

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

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Etymology of 'Paroxysm'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Paroxysm" Quotes from Famous Books

... Mastakovich was seized with a paroxysm of agitation. He looked round and said in a tone faint, almost ...

— Best Russian Short Stories • Various

... greatness of soul which raised the poor despised creature so far above himself. That she should have been able to conceal her sorrow so long out of tender consideration for him whom she loved! How great that love must be! When the paroxysm was over she looked smiling at Timar, like the sun through ...

— Timar's Two Worlds • Mr Jkai

... not a little surprising to behold this paroxysm of rage evaporate before the happy presence of mind displayed by Mr. Fitzmaurice, in immediately beginning to dance and shout, though in momentary expectation of being pierced by a dozen spears. In this he was imitated by Mr. Keys, who was assisting in the observations, and who at the moment ...

— Discoveries in Australia, Volume 1. • J Lort Stokes

... lead back his wife to the upper air, provided only he will not look upon her on the way. But love has overcome him. He has turned and looked, and the doom of an irrevocable parting is sealed. In no unseemly paroxysm of grief, but tenderly, sadly, they look their last at one another, while Hermes, guide of departed spirits, makes gentle signal for the wife's return. In the chastened pathos of this scene we have the quintessence of the temper of Greek art in dealing ...

— A History Of Greek Art • F. B. Tarbell

... more, your joy at my first act had brought you so near to my innermost heart that I thought I might, at such a moment, make the most outrageous demand on you. That feeling I expressed, if I remember rightly, in the words, "For my paroxysm of joyous excitement your delight at 'Tristan' is responsible." Dearest friend, at that moment I could not even think of the possibility of a misunderstanding. Everything being so certain and infallible between us, I went to the opposite extreme of reproaching you because you had ...

— Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, Volume 2 • Francis Hueffer (translator)

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