BOISTEROUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does boisterous mean? 

• BOISTEROUS (adjective)
  The adjective BOISTEROUS has 3 senses:

1. noisy and lacking in restraint or discipline

2. full of rough and exuberant animal spirits

3. violently agitated and turbulent

  Familiarity information: BOISTEROUS used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BOISTEROUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Noisy and lacking in restraint or discipline

Synonyms:

boisterous; rambunctious; robustious; rumbustious; unruly

Context example:

an unruly class

Similar:

disorderly (undisciplined and unruly)

Derivation:

boisterousness (the property of being noisy and lively and unrestrained)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Full of rough and exuberant animal spirits

Synonyms:

boisterous; knockabout

Context example:

knockabout comedy

Similar:

spirited (displaying animation, vigor, or liveliness)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Violently agitated and turbulent

Synonyms:

boisterous; fierce; rough

Context example:

rough seas

Similar:

stormy ((especially of weather) affected or characterized by storms or commotion)

Derivation:

boisterousness (a turbulent and stormy state of the sea)

 Context examples 

This was a hearty, healthy, dapper, red-faced gentleman, with a shock of hair prematurely white, and a boisterous and decided manner.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

His clear, pensive gray eyes, and quick, delicate expression, spoke of a nature which had unfolded far from the boisterous joys and sorrows of the world.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But leave them I must, and that speedily, as I learned amidst the boisterous congratulations of my father and the tears of my mother.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The boisterous impact of it on Martin's jaded mind was a hurt.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Happily, too, the greater part of the boys came back low-spirited, and were not so boisterous at my expense as I had expected.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He was kind to her also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they seemed to be a happy couple.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A chorus of boisterous laughter came from the other rocks, and Dorothy saw hundreds of the armless Hammer-Heads upon the hillside, one behind every rock.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

It was a bleak and boisterous night and the wind whistled shrilly down the long street.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And if that boisterous Channel, and two hundred miles or so of land come broad between us, I am afraid that cord of communion will be snapt; and then I've a nervous notion I should take to bleeding inwardly.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

There was nothing in any of the party which could recommend them as companions to the Dashwoods; but the cold insipidity of Lady Middleton was so particularly repulsive, that in comparison of it the gravity of Colonel Brandon, and even the boisterous mirth of Sir John and his mother-in-law was interesting.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)