hurricane

Definition

A severe tropical cyclone; an intense storm rotating around a central eye.

Etymology

Etymology tree Taíno *hurakābor. Spanish huracánbor. English hurricane Borrowed from Spanish huracán, ultimately from Taíno *hurakā.

Example Sentences

• "THE HURRICANE OF AUGUST 1831. Calamitous as were the many eruptions of nature by which this island [Barbados] had suffered, the aggregate destruction produced by them was probably unequal to that effected by the storm of August 1831. That of 1675, according to the description given in history, very much resembled it in appearance, duration, and fury; but the extent to which human life was sacrificed is not on record. Although many persons then perished, it is reasonable to suppose that the numbers bore no proportion to those whose loss this mourning island now deplores. The hurricane of 1780, fearfully tremendous as it was, is admitted by all living witnesses to have been far much inferior in force, and less destructive to the country ; but its protracted continuance served to effect the damage then occasioned. […] Captain Charles Cooper, of the mail-boat schooner Friends, on his arrival from Trinidad, Grenada, and St. Vincent's, reported, that on the 23rd of June he had experienced a tremendous gale five leagues to the southward of Grenada. It continued without intermission for five hours, during the whole of which time the vessel was hove nearly on her beam ends. Captain J.MᶜGregor, of His Majesty's 1st or Royal Regiment, and other passengers were on board, and every one, as well as the master and crew, expected to have been entombed by the foaming ocean. At Grenada the gale was described as more severe than any that had been experienced since the hurricane of 1780. At an early hour in the morning "the sea became considerably agitated, and sent forth a noise, which, contrasted with the stillness of the atmosphere, inspired a strange and unaccountable feeling." The morning dawned with a heavy and perturbed sky, but it was not until near noon that the hurricane commenced. Between 3 and 4 in the afternoon the tempest had attained its height, after which it gradually moderated. The damage inflicted on the country was severely felt, but with one exception there was no loss of life."
• "Without going over the ground so well occupied by those able writers on the subject of storms — Redfield, Reid, Piddington, and Thom—it will be quite sufficient for our present purpose simply to notice the essential phænomena of revolving storms as manifested by the barometer and vane. The usual indications of a storm in connexion with these instruments are the falling of the barometer and the freshening of the wind, and it is generally considered that a rapid fall of the mercury in the hurricane regions invariably precedes the setting in of a storm. There are three classes of phænomena that present themselves to an observer, according as he is situated on the line or axis of translation, or in either the right or left hand semicircle of the storm. These will be rendered very apparent by a little attention to the annexed engraving, fig. 1. In this figure the arrow-head is supposed to be directed true north, and the hurricane—as is the case in the American storms north of the 30th parallel—to be moving towards the N.E. on the line N.E.–S.W. If the ship take the hurricane with the wind S.E.,— the letters within the two larger circles indicating the direction of the wind in the storm according to the rotation as shown by the circle of arrow-heads […]"
• "Near-synonyms: typhoon, cyclone"

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