English

Adjective

tempest-tossed ‎(comparative more tempest-tossed, superlative most tempest-tossed)

1. (poetic) Battered by a storm or storms.
   • 1842, George French Angas, A Ramble in Malta and Sicily, in the Autumn of 1841, Cambridge University Press (2013), ISBN 9781108054683, page 168:

     When the dark storm and the howling blast sweep with their wintry pinions over its troubled bosom, I shall think of the rocking ship and the tempest-tossed sailor, whose home is on the faithless sea.

   • 2011, James Mellon, The Judge: A Life of Thomas Mellon, Founder of Fortune, Yale University Press (2011), ISBN 9780300167146, unnumbered page:

     Like a battle-scarred, tempest-tossed warship, with her sails in tatters, her masts broken, and bilges awash, T. Mellon & Sons was, incredibly, still afloat.

   • 2011, Encyclopedia of Climate and Weather, Oxford University Press (2011), ISBN 9780199765324, page 404:

     Shipwrecks on tempest-tossed seas are featured in a number of other ballets and operas.

   • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:tempest-tossed.
2. (figuratively) Beset by adversity or fraught with dissension.
   • 1963, Cleveland Amory & ‎Earl Blackwell, Celebrity Register: An Irreverent Compendium of American Quotable Notables, Harper & Row (1963), page 454:

     Divorced from Allan Wayne after a tempest-tossed marriage notable for locking each other out and scares over alleged kidnapings^[sic] of their daughter, she married Arnold Grant in 1962.

   • 1999, Shmuley Boteach, Kosher Sex: A Recipe for Passion and Intimacy, Broadway (1999), ISBN 0385494661, page 75:

     There is little calm in their marriage, and it is almost always tempest-tossed.

   • 2011, Hannah Whitall Smith, God of All Comfort, Anamchara Books (2011), ISBN 9781933630854, page 282:

     And now, when any tempest-tossed soul fails to see that God is enough, I feel like saying, not with scorn, but with infinite pity, “Ah, dear friend, you do not know God! Did you know Him, you could not help seeing that He is the remedy for every need of your soul, and that He is an all-sufficient remedy. […]