paroxysm

noun

1. (countable)A period (especially one of several recurring periods) during the course of an illness when symptoms worsen; a sudden attack of a disease symptom, such as a bout of coughing or a seizure.

   “Againe; I feare a paroxiſme.”

   “For, Sir, though Ireland is always combustible, Ireland is not always on fire. We must distinguish between the chronic complaints which are to be attributed to remote causes, and the acute attack which is brought on by recent imprudence. For though there is always a predisposition to disease in that unhappy society, the violent paroxysms come only at intervals.”

   “His malady proved to be a softening of the spinal marrow: it was incurable; it made rapid progress. […] [A]ll this, and suffering, besides this, at short intervals, paroxysms of nervous agony.”

   “The slightest effort made the patient cough. He would stand leaning on a stick and holding a hand to his side, and when the paroxysm had passed it left him shaking.”

2. (broadly, countable)Chiefly followed by of: a sudden outburst of violent activity or feeling; also, the most severe part of an activity or incident; the climax.

   “[H]ere vve may take occaſion, to mention the miſerable condition of the Iſraelites in Egypt, during vvhich time, vvoefull their ſlavery, if vve conſider, the […] Long continuance thereof, tvvo hundred and odde years in the latitude, and fourſcore (from the birth of Moſes) in the Paroxyſme of their bondage.”

   “[I]n his Paroxyſms, as he vvalked the Streets, he vvould have his Pockets loaden vvith Stones, to pelt at the Signs.”

   “If prevented by force, the screams she sometimes uttered in her paroxysms of rage were fearful, and must inevitably be heard.”

   “Her doubts and terrors reached their paroxysm; and the poor girl, who for many hours had been plunged into stupor, raved and ran hither and thither in hysteric insanity—a piteous sight.”

   “These chants are taken up, more or less, by the audience; sometimes they flag and die away for want of support, sometimes they are continued till they reach a paroxysm, and then abruptly stop.”

3. (archaic, broadly, countable)An outburst of a violent argument or disagreement.

   “But the greateſt contention happening here, vvas that Paroxyſme betvvixt Paul and Barnabas, the one as earneſtly refuſing, as the other deſiring the company of John Mark to goe along vvith them.”

   “By the vvay, it muſt not be forgotten, that in the very midſt of the Paroxiſme betvvixt [Richard] Hooker and [Walter] Travers, the latter ſtil bare (and none can challenge the other to the contrary) a reverend eſteem of his adverſary.”

   “[A]n election was at hand, which, it was expected, would throw the whole country into a paroxysm.”

   “The passions which inflame us, the sophisms which delude us, will not last for ever. The paroxysms of faction have their appointed season.”

4. (broadly, countable)A violent occurrence of a natural phenomenon, such as an earthquake, thunderstorm, or volcanic eruption; specifically (volcanology), the most explosive event during a series of volcanic eruptions.

   “[T]he Storm had ſeven Paroxyſms or Exacerbations, vvhich the Seamen call Frights of VVeather, […]”

   “[W]ith paroxiſms of ſtrange diſmay / Th' amazed Heav'ns ſtood ſtill, Earth's baſis ſhook, / The troubled Ocean roard, the ſtartled Air / In hollovv grones profoundly breath'd its fear.”

5. (broadly, rare, uncountable)Disastrous or sudden change.

   “It is manifest that the species themselves are but transmutations of one or a few primordial types, and that they have been created not by paroxysm, but by evolution.”

   “Catastrophists argued that most geological change occurred in rare episodes of truly global paroxysm, marked by the "usual suspects" of volcanism, mountain building, earthquakes, and flooding.”