Definition
A sudden, violent outburst of emotion or action.
Pronunciation
US English
UK English
See Synonyms, Antonyms and Usage
Excerpts from News Articles
1
In his famous 1960 “Letter to the New Left,” C. Wright Mills flippantly rejects the way young radicals positioned “‘the working class’ of the advanced capitalist societies as the historic agency.” At the time of writing, his argument was disruptive—the paroxysms that punctuated the long 1960s often opposed unions and their members as much as the state and corporate America.
2
The plot turns on small but seismic moments like this. Yemi’s circle includes an angry mixed-race girl, Armani, who boasts of her Jamaican heritage even though she has yet to visit the Caribbean. And her English mother doesn’t understand West Indian cuisine and can cook only ‘beans on toast’. When this secret is exposed, Armani suffers paroxysms of shame. The play takes the viewer into a delicate, multilayered society where vendettas and love affairs are pursued according to strict conventions of speech, diet and dress.
