paroxysms
Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 2:22 pm
Whenever Jerry(?) insists he has to one-up-me it throws me into a paroxysms of laughter and sometimes Pique (fits of)!paroxysm \PAIR-uhk-siz-uhm\, noun:
1. (Medicine) A sudden attack, intensification, or recurrence of a disease.
2. Any sudden and violent emotion or action; an outburst; a fit.
But when he's on target -- and more often than not he is -- he can send you into paroxysms of laughter.
--William Triplett, "Drawing Laughter From a Well of Family Pain," Washington Post, June 13, 2002
Dickens had a paroxysm of rage: 'Bounding up from his chair, and throwing his knife and fork on his plate (which he smashed to atoms), he exclaimed: "Dolby! your infernal caution will be your ruin one of these days!"'
--Edmund Wilson, "Dickens: The Two Scrooges," The Atlantic, April/May 1940
Mrs. Bumble, seeing at a glance that the decisive moment had now arrived, and that a blow struck for mastership on one side or another, must necessarily be final and conclusive, dropped into a chair, and with a loud scream that Mr. Bumble was a hard-hearted brute, fell into a paroxysm of tears.
--Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
kt