convulsionary

American  

[kuhn-vuhl-shuh-ner-ee] / kənˈvʌl ʃəˌnɛr i /

adjective

1. of or affected with convulsion.

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noun

convulsionaries plural

1. a person who has convulsions, especially as a result of religious experience.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• convulsionaries
  plural

Etymology

Origin of convulsionary

First recorded in 1735–45; convulsion + -ary

Example Sentences

Madame de Staël has something of it; St. Pierre; and down onwards to the present astonishing convulsionary ‘Literature of Desperation,’ it is everywhere abundant.

From Sartor Resartus, and On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Carlyle, Thomas

At considerable intervals I had two or three attacks of convulsionary fits.

From The Opium Habit by Day, Horace B.

Certain diseases which appear to be more mental than physical sometimes occur so numerously as to assume an epidemic form, such as St. Vitus's dance, convulsionary diseases, or suicidal mania.

From The New Gresham Encyclopedia Volume 4, Part 2: Ebert to Estremadura by Various

He was a convulsionary, and his head would be found wedged into tight places whence it could hardly be extracted. 

From Cock Lane and Common-Sense by Lang, Andrew

Formerly rude and convulsionary forces were actively at work, to compel chaos into anarchy and anarchy into order.

From In the Oregon Country Out-Doors in Oregon, Washington, and California Together with some Legendary Lore, and Glimpses of the Modern West in the Making by Putnam, George Palmer