turmoil

English

Etymology

Unknown origin. Perhaps from Old French tremouille (“the hopper of a mill”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈtɜrmɔɪl/

Noun

turmoil (usually uncountable; plural turmoils)

1. A state of great disorder or uncertainty.
   • 2012 June 19, Phil McNulty, “England 1-0 Ukraine”, BBC Sport:

     Oleg Blokhin's side lost the talismanic Andriy Shevchenko to the substitutes' bench because of a knee injury but still showed enough to put England through real turmoil in spells.

Synonyms

• chaos, disorder

Translations

a state of great disorder or uncertainty

• Burmese: အရှုပ်အထွေး (my) (ăshok-ăhtwe:)
• Finnish: myllerrys (fi), sekasorto (fi), kaaos (fi)
• French: chaos (fr), désordre (fr) m
• Georgian: ქაოსი (ka) (k'aosi)
• German: Aufruhr (de) m, Tumult (de) m, Unruhe (de) f, Unordnung (de) f

• Italian: caos (it), disordine (it), scompiglio (it)
• Russian: смятение (ru) (smjaténije) n, потрясение (ru) (potrjasénije) n, беспорядок (ru) (besporjádok) m, суматоха (ru) (sumatóxa) f, хаос (ru) (xáos, xaós) m, смута (ru) (smúta) f
• Spanish: desorden (es) m, turbulencia (es) f, dificultad (es) f

Verb

turmoil (third-person singular simple present turmoils, present participle turmoiling, simple past and past participle turmoiled)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To be disquieted or confused; to be in commotion.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

2. (obsolete, transitive) To harass with commotion; to disquiet; to worry.
   • Spenser

     It is her fatal misfortune […] to be miserably tossed and turmoiled with these storms of affliction.

External links

• turmoil in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• turmoil in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• turmoil at OneLook Dictionary Search