[ad. OF. tempeste-r (12th c.), f. tempeste: see prec.]
1. trans. To affect by or as by a tempest; to throw into violent commotion, to agitate violently.
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 167. And whan hir list the Sky tempeste, The reinbowe is hir Messager.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, IV. i. (1869), 174. Tempested it was gretliche, of gret tempestes and of wyind.
1480. Caxton, Ovid’s Met., XI. xix. The wyndes … renne so radely, that nothing may lette them to tempeste alle the see.
1638. Penit. Conf. (1657), 346. Rooted most when most tempested.
1667. Milton, P. L., VII. 412. Fish … part huge of bulk Wallowing unweildie, enormous in thir Gate, Tempest the Ocean.
1715–20. Pope, Iliad, XXI. 30. The huge dolphin tempesting the main.
1830. H. N. Coleridge, Grk. Poets (1834), 129. As when two winds—the north and west … suddenly tempest the sea.
1857. H. Miller, Test. Rocks, iii. 137. Its wonderful whales … of the reptilian class … must have tempested the deep.
2. fig. To disturb violently (a person, the mind).
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., II. pr. iv. 28 (Camb. MS.). I haue som what conforted the so þat thow tempest the nat thus with al thi fortune.
a. 1415. Lydgate, Temple of Glas, 1157. For no turment, þat þe fallen shal, Tempest þe not.
1521. Fisher, Serm. Luther, Wks. (1876), 312. Ioannes wiccliff with other moo which sore tempested the chyrche.
1621. T. Williamson, trans. Goulart’s Wise Vieillard, 25. Tempested with disordered thoughts and vnruly passions.
1762. Goldsm., Cit. W., xlvii. A mind … tempested up by a thousand various passions.
1819. Campbell, Spec. Brit. Poets, I. 164. A man … has hardly tied the fatal knot when his house is tempested by female eloquence.
3. intr. Of the wind, weather, etc., and impers.: To be tempestuous, to blow tempestuously; to rage, storm. Also fig. ? Obs.
c. 1477. Caxton, Jason, 56. Sone after the winde began to rise and tempest horrible and impetuouse.
1530. Palsgr., 754/1. Herde you nat howe it tempested to nyght?
1601. B. Jonson, Poetaster, V. i. Other Princes … Thunder, and tempest, on those learned heads, Whom Caesar with such honour doth aduance.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 207 (trans. Ovid’s Met., XI. 521). Blind night in darkness tempests.
Hence Tempested ppl. a., tossed or afflicted by a tempest; Tempesting vbl. sb.
a. 1631. Donne, Serm., xxxvii. (1640), 366. No repentance [can] stay his tempested and weather-beaten conscience.
1811. Shelley, St. Irvyne, ix. Pr. Wks. 1888, I. 196. And the moon dimly gleam’d through the tempested air.
1846. Trench, Miracles, iv. The Church of Christ has evermore resembled this tempested bark.
1882. Myers, Renewal of Youth, 288. Rocked by strange blast and stormy tempestings.
