TANTRUM • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Tantrum

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/tˈæntrəm/ Listen

noun

Tantrum n.

A whim; an affected air. (Colloq. and archaic)

A display of ill-humor, especially a demonstration of rage or frustration by shouting or violent physical movements, such as the stamping of feet; called also temper tantrum. It is usually associated with children, but is sometimes seen in adults.

(fig.) A display of anger expressed by irrationally striking out at innocent targets or inanimate objects; as, the governor was so insulted by the article, he threw a temper tantrum and cancelled the ceremony.

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Etymology of 'Tantrum'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tantrum" Quotes from Famous Books

... more stylish, to ride on. I calculate," says he, pullin' up his collar, and pullin' down his vest,—"I lay out to dress gay, and act gay. I calculate to make a show for once in my life, and put on style. One thing I am bound on,—I shall drive tantrum." ...

— Sweet Cicely - Or Josiah Allen as a Politician • Josiah Allen's Wife (Marietta Holley)

... longer by taking the key in my pocket, but it would not do. I overheard mine hostess one day telling some of her customers on the stairs that the room was occupied by an author, who was always in a tantrum if interrupted; and I immediately perceived, by a slight noise at the door, that they were peeping at me through the key-hole. By the head of Apollo, but this was quite too much! with all my eagerness for fame, and my ambition of the stare of the million, ...

— Tales of a Traveller • Washington Irving

... son of a book-publisher of Zwickau. He was a handsome lad with the flash of genius in his luminous eyes, and an independence like that of an Alpine goat. When very young they say he used to have tantrums. If your child has a tantrum, it is bad policy for you to imitate ...

— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 14 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Musicians • Elbert Hubbard

... was just before he sailed. About a year and a half or two years later I met him again, in Paris. He was in pretty bad shape; seemed hypnotised by this Mariana and afraid as death of her; she could go into a tantrum that would frighten him into anything. It was a joke—down along the line of the all-night dancers and cafes—that she was going to marry him; and some one told me afterward that she claimed to have brought it about. I suppose it's true; but there is no question of ...

— The Guest of Quesnay • Booth Tarkington

... boatswain's whistle! I must go and see what's up. Pentland Firth is ever restless and nobody minds that, but she gets into sudden passions which need close watching, and I wouldn't wonder if there was not now signs of a Pentland tantrum." ...

— The Measure of a Man • Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr

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