stormy petrel

2. One who brings discord or appears at the onset of trouble; a rebel.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

stormy petrel

1. (Animals) another name for storm petrel

2. a person who brings or portends trouble

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

storm′y pet′rel

1. a storm petrel, Hydrobates pelagicus, of the E Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and Indian Ocean.

2. a person who likes strife.

3. a person or thing that foreshadows trouble.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

stormy petrel - sooty black petrel with white markings; of the northern Atlantic and Mediterranean

Hydrobates pelagicus, northern storm petrel

storm petrel - any of various small petrels having dark plumage with paler underparts

genus Hydrobates, Hydrobates - type genus of the Hydrobatidae

Translations

stormy petrel

n → Sturmschwalbe f; (fig) → Unglücksbote m → /-botin f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

The "Stormy Petrel" was manned by half a dozen jaunty looking sailors, who made a fine display of blue shirts and shiny hats, with stars and anchors in every direction.

View in context

I am afraid, my dear Colonel, that you must regret the hour that you took in such a stormy petrel as I am."

View in context

Prayers were offered for Aspirant Adelabu, a second generation direct descendant of the 'Stormy Petrel,' at the graveside of the late politician.

Adelabu: Between ambition and call to service

Early in March, Kenya's stormy petrel, the opposition leader Raila Odinga, walked into Harambee House, where President Uhuru Kenyatta frequently operates from, for a meeting with his arch-rival.

Worst of enemies, best of friends

But her main claim to fame is the time when she was the stormy petrel of the movement directed against what Advani called the "ocular provocation" of the Babri Masjid.

Babri Masjid trial may reveal BJP's communal face

Names we know and love that have previously graced the start line in the non-spinnaker around-the-harbour race include Anitra V, Southerly, Lolita, Mr Christian, Stormy Petrel, Suraya, Mercedes IV, Struert Marie, Archina, Marls and Lorita Maria.

Winter motivation

He was Stamford Bridge, who reached No 47 with Chelsea; he was Kincade, Scarcrow, Stormy Petrel and Ohio Express.

BRUM'S LENNON & McCARTNEY... The songwriting partnership which spawned a string of 1960s hits but failed to find the fame they deserved

The Stormy Petrel by Violet Needham - one of her Ruritanian novels written in the 1940 and '50s Q.

He's not a 'big bet' man but is still well known at racecourses; turf talk Brian Lee

The stormy petrel of West Bengal politics who choose to live in a nondescript tiled single-storey house in a dingy lane close to the Kalighat temple in full solidarity with the poor women of the State cannot but bring women's issue to the centre-stage of her administrative policies.

Mamata's Magnetic Mantra

(15.) See Paul Stephen Hudson, "Flight of the Stormy Petrel: The Glory Years of Oglethorpe University Athletics," Atlanta History: A Journal of Georgia and the South, 36.

Frank Anderson: the dean of Southern College baseball coaches, 1916-1944