take by storm
English
WOTD – 3 August 2007
Etymology
Compare English blitzkrieg.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌteɪk baɪ ˈstɔːm/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˌteɪk baɪ ˈstɔːɹm/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (AU) (file)
Verb
take by storm (third-person singular simple present takes by storm, present participle taking by storm, simple past took by storm, past participle taken by storm)
- (transitive, military) To capture by means of a sudden, overwhelming attack.
- The soldiers took the castle by storm.
- (transitive, idiomatic) To seize, overpower, or captivate in a sudden and forceful manner.
- 1841, Charles Dickens, chapter 71, in Barnaby Rudge:
- [A] startling interruption occurred at that moment, which took their whole attention by storm.
- 1847, Charlotte Brontë, chapter 33, in Jane Eyre:
- How I looked while these ideas were taking my spirit by storm, I cannot tell.
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- (transitive, idiomatic) To rapidly gain great popularity in (a place).
- 1908, Jack London, chapter 1, in The Iron Heel, New York: The Macmillan Company:
- This obscure reference ["Blind Tom"] applies to a blind negro musician who took the world by storm in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
- 1969, Arnold Shaw, The Rock Revolution, page 1:
- Beatlemania took England and Europe by storm and proceeded to inundate American teenagers.
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Translations
To capture by means of a sudden, overwhelming attack
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To rapidly gain popularity in a place
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