convulsionary

[ kuhn-vuhl-shuh-ner-ee ]

adjective

1. of or affected with convulsion.

noun

, plural con·vul·sion·ar·ies.

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of convulsionary¹

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

But it was inevitable that a genius so regulated and metrical as his, a mind which always compensated itself for its artistic radicalism by an involuntary leaning toward external respectability, should recoil from whatever was convulsionary and destructive in politics, and above all in religion.

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