convulsionary

American  

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

adjective

1. of or affected with convulsion.

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noun

plural

convulsionaries

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

Etymology

Origin of convulsionary

First recorded in 1735–45; convulsion + -ary

Example Sentences

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 Project Gutenberg

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

From Project Gutenberg

And as a convulsionary lady complained that he struck too lightly to relieve the feeling of depression at her stomach, he gave her sixty blows with all his force.

From Project Gutenberg

The joy and sorrow of Stevenson was to find a society "in much the same convulsionary and transitional state" as the Highlands and Islands after 1745.

From Project Gutenberg

And as I dwell on what I myself heard or saw of the mighty Westerner, and blend it with the history and literature of my age, and conclude it with his death, it seems like some tragic play, superior to all else I know—vaster and fierier and more convulsionary, for this America of ours, than Eschylus or Shakespeare ever drew for Athens or for England.

From Project Gutenberg