Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A sudden movement of the earth's crust caused by the release of stress accumulated along geologic faults or by volcanic activity.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A movement or vibration of a part of the earth's crust.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Like, or characteristic of, an earthquake; loud; startling.
  • noun A shaking, trembling, or concussion of the earth, due to subterranean causes, often accompanied by a rumbling noise. The wave of shock sometimes traverses half a hemisphere, destroying cities and many thousand lives; -- called also earthdin, earthquave, and earthshock.
  • noun a bell signal constructed to operate on the theory that a few seconds before the occurrence of an earthquake the magnet temporarily loses its power.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a disturbance that is extremely disruptive
  • noun shaking and vibration at the surface of the earth resulting from underground movement along a fault plane of from volcanic activity

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English ertheqwake, corresponding to earth +‎ quake.

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Examples

Comments

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  • I looked of this word for a school vocablury test thing :) i hope im A+ the test Fingers ccrossed.Have a good day everone. IM THE FRIST ONE TO DO THIS *-* ^0^

    September 14, 2011

  • It's a big response a billy tea being frist.

    September 14, 2011