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Tempest vs Squall - What's the difference?

tempest | squall |

As nouns the difference between tempest and squall

is that tempest is a storm, especially one with severe winds while squall is a squall line, multicell line, or part of a squall line.

As verbs the difference between tempest and squall

is that tempest is to storm while squall is to cry or wail loudly.

tempest

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A storm, especially one with severe winds.
  • * 1847 , (Herman Melville), Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas , ch. 16:
    • As every sailor knows, a spicy gale in the tropic latitudes of the Pacific is far different from a tempest in the howling North Atlantic.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1892, author=(James Yoxall)
    • , chapter=5, title= The Lonely Pyramid , passage=The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom.
  • Any violent tumult or commotion.
  • * 1914 , (Ambrose Bierce), "One Officer, One Man":
    • They awaited the word "forward"—awaited, too, with beating hearts and set teeth the gusts of lead and iron that were to smite them at their first movement in obedience to that word. The word was not given; the tempest did not break out.
  • (label) A fashionable social gathering; a drum.
    • (Smollett)

    Derived terms

    * tempest in a teapot * tempestuous

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (rare) To storm.
  • (transitive, chiefly, poetic) To disturb, as by a tempest.
  • * 1667 , , Paradise Lost , Book VII:
    • . . . the seal
    And bended dolphins play; part huge of bulk,
    Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait,
    Tempest the ocean.
  • * 1811 , , "The Drowned Lover," in Poems from St. Irvyne :
    • Oh! dark lowered the clouds on that horrible eve,
    And the moon dimly gleamed through the tempested air.

    References

    * * * ----

    squall

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A squall line, multicell line, or part of a squall line.
  • A sudden storm, as found in a squall line. Often a nautical usage.

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To cry or wail loudly.
  • * 1883 , (Robert Louis Stevenson), (Treasure Island) :
    • Squalling was the word for it, Pew's anger rose so high at these objections; till at last, his passion completely taking the upper hand, he struck at them right and left in his blindness, and his stick sounded heavily on more than one.
  • * 1916 , (Jack London), The Red One :
    • Squalling like an infuriated cat, the shadow crashed down
  • * 1998 , (Anne McCafferey), Masterharper of Pern :
    • she wrapped the squalling , wriggling baby tightly into the fine cotton sheet

    Derived terms

    * squaller * squally