Careful Words

whirlwind (n.)

  Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise. I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it out-herods Herod.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.

  They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.

Old Testament: Hosea viii. 7.

And, pleased the Almighty's orders to perform,

Rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719): The Campaign. Line 291.

And proud his mistress' order to perform,

Rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Dunciad. Book iii. Line 263.