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):

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• Audio (General Australian):

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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)

1. (transitive, military) To capture by means of a sudden, overwhelming attack.

   The soldiers took the castle by storm.

2. (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.

3. (transitive, idiomatic) To rapidly gain great popularity in (a place).
   • 1908 February 19, Jack London, chapter 1, in The Iron Heel, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC:

     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.

Translations

To capture by means of a sudden, overwhelming attack

• Finnish: valloittaa äkkirynnäköllä, valloittaa rynnäköllä
• Galician: conquistar (gl)
• German: im Sturm erobern
• Italian: prendere d'assalto
• Latin: expugnō
• Russian: брать шту́рмом impf (bratʹ štúrmom), взять шту́рмом pf (vzjatʹ štúrmom)

To rapidly gain popularity in a place

• Finnish: valloittaa (fi)
• French: prendre d’assaut (fr)
• Galician: conquistar (gl)
• German: im Sturm erobern