Forms: see TURMOIL. v. [See TURMOIL v.] A state of agitation or commotion: disturbance, tumult; trouble, disquiet.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 75. Where … the mynde is full of vayne cogitacyons and turmoyle of worldly desyres.
1555. Eden, Decades, 144. In all the turmoyles and tragicall affayres of the Ocean, nothynge hath so muche displeased me as the couetousnes of this man.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., II. (S.T.S.), I. 138. Nathir in al this truble and Tormoyle of the Scottis was the Pechtis frie of truble.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 2. What makes these Seas in such a constant Turmoil?
1792. V. Knox, Serm., xix. 412. The noise of business, as it is called, or the jarring turmoil which avarice occasions.
1838. Thirlwall, Greece, II. xv. 251. For four years longer Asia was still kept in restless turmoil.
1872. Jenkinson, Guide Eng. Lakes (1879), 259. Relics of bygone ages of turmoil and border warfare.
1883. Bryce, Amer. Commw., I. vii. 90. The presidential election … throws the country for several months into a state of turmoil.
† b. Harassing labor, toil. Obs. rare.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 915. Myning and digging tynne and mettall oute of the grounde both daye and night with great turmoile and laboure.
1591. Shaks., Two Gent., II. vii. 37. And there Ile rest, as after much turmoile, A blessed soule doth in Elizium.
