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Tempest vs Torrent - What's the difference?

tempest | torrent |

As nouns the difference between tempest and torrent

is that tempest is a storm, especially one with severe winds while torrent is a violent flow, as of water, lava, etc.; a stream suddenly raised and running rapidly, as down a precipice.

As verbs the difference between tempest and torrent

is that tempest is to storm while torrent is to download in a torrent.

As an adjective torrent is

rolling or rushing in a rapid stream.

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

    * * * ----

    torrent

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) torrent

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A violent flow, as of water, lava, etc.; a stream suddenly raised and running rapidly, as down a precipice.
  • * (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
    • The roaring torrent is deep and wide.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=28, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= High and wet , passage=Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale.
  • (figurative) A large amount or stream of something.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 21, author=Helen Pidd, work=the Guardian
    • , title= Europeans migrate south as continent drifts deeper into crisis , passage=A new stream of migrants is leaving the continent. It threatens to become a torrent if the debt crisis continues to worsen.}}
  • * {{quote-book, passage=The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees, / The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, / The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor ...
    • , title=, author=Alfred Noyes, year=1906}}
    Derived terms
    * torrential * torrentiality * torrentially

    See also

    * barrage * inundate * deluge * torrential

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Rolling or rushing in a rapid stream.
  • * Milton
    • Waves of torrent fire.

    Etymology 2

    From BitTorrent and the file extension it uses for metadata (.torrent).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (Internet, file sharing) A set of files obtainable through a peer-to-peer network, especially BitTorrent.
    • I got a torrent of the complete works of Shakespeare the other day; I'm not sure why.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (internet slang) To download in a torrent.
    • The video rental place didn't have the film I was after, but I managed to torrent it.
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