earthquake
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: compound
Etymology: From Middle English erthequake, corresponding to earth + quake. Displaced Middle English eorð byfung (“earthquake”) from Old English eorþbeofung (literally “earth shaking”).
Compound parts: earth
quake
Inflected forms:
form: earthquakes
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: earthquakes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: earthquaking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: earthquaked
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: earthquaked
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A shaking of the ground, caused by volcanic activity or movement around geologic faults.
pos: noun
examples: Her alablaster brest she soft did kis, / Which all that while shee felt to pant and quake, / As it an Earth-quake were: at last she thus bespake.
I had just awoke at gun-fire (5 A.M.), when suddenly the thatch began to rustle and shake as if an army of cats were galloping over it, and immediately afterwards my bed shook too, so that for an instant I imagined myself back in New Guinea, in my fragile house, which shook when an old cock went to roost on the ridge; but remembering that I was now on a solid earthen floor, I said to myself, "Why, it's an earthquake," and lay still in the pleasing expectation of another shock; but none came, and this was the only earthquake I ever felt in Ternate.
Last year's earthquake crushed his house, his livelihood and very nearly his leg, he said, pointing to a plastered limb that refuses to heal.
gloss: Such a quake specifically occurring on the planet Earth, as opposed to other celestial bodies.
pos: noun
examples: Since the response of some man-made structures to the ground motion near the epicenter is highly dependent on frequency, a significant difference in potential damage to the structures is expected between earthquakes and moonquakes.
The wave patterns, too, are strikingly different: The secondary (S) waves and surface waves on lunar seismograms are not generally as clearly defined and distinct as are those of earthquakes.
gloss: A sudden and intense upheaval; a severely disruptive event.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: As we have seen, economic earthquakes often result in political shockwaves. […] He highlights a correlation between those states with the highest robot density and those states that unexpectedly swung behind Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, namely Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Leo Varadkar has announced he is standing down as Ireland’s prime minister and also giving up his role as leader of the Fine Gael party in the ruling coalition, in a surprise move described by pundits as a “political earthquake” for the country.
gloss: To undergo an earthquake.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Watch the Philippines very closely for the next little while. There is rumbling and earthquaking deep within Pinatubo and increased earthquaking within Mayon.
Synonyms: earthdin
quake
seism
temblor
terremote
tremblor
tremor
Related words: moonquake
seaquake
starquake
Derived words: antiearthquake
birthquake
cuntquake
earthquake baroque
earthquake bomb
earthquake dam
earthquake drill
earthquake engineering
earthquakelike
earthquake-prone
earthquakeproof
earthquake protector
earthquake storm
earthquaky
footquake
hurriquake
megaearthquake
microearthquake
mirthquake
non-earthquake
paleoearthquake
postearthquake
slow earthquake
Translations: