Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A sudden gathering of force, as of public opinion.
- noun A broad deep undulation of the ocean, often caused by a distant storm or an earthquake.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An obsolete variant of
groundsel . - noun A broad, deep swell or rolling of the sea, occasioned by a distant storm or heavy gale, and sometimes also by distant seismic disturbances: sometimes used figuratively of a rolling surface of country, and also of a rising wave of sound or of emotion.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A long, deep wave in the sea, sometimes caused by distant winds or storms.
- noun A rising sentiment of support or enthusiasm, especially among the general public.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun nautical A broad
undulation of the openocean , often as the result of a distantdisturbance - noun by extension A broadly-based shifting of
public opinion
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a broad and deep undulation of the ocean
- noun an obvious change of public opinion or political sentiment that occurs without leadership or overt expression
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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To convey these values, the Obama campaign claims to be taking grass-roots organizing to a new level, harnessing what they describe as a groundswell of enthusiasm.
Hullabaloo 2008
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The SACBC also called attention to what it described as a groundswell of discontent building up in the coloured community especially in the Western and Northern Cape.
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The column is about how there is a so-called groundswell to President Obama's alleged
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B-to-b marketers see these examples and think, "The groundswell is a consumer phenomenon; it doesn't happen in business."
unknown title 2009
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It will meld social software into the larger BI platform capabilities to tap into what Gartner calls a groundswell of interest in informal collaboration.
CIO News 2009
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It will meld social software into the larger BI platform capabilities to tap into what Gartner calls a groundswell of interest in informal collaboration.
InfoWorld RSS Feed 2009
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When taking customer feedback, important to double-back to create evangelists called the groundswell that succeeded in reviving the TV show "Jericho"'squeeky wheels' The revival failed.
The Flack 2009
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Insiders say that at the council's last meeting on 16 July there was a "groundswell" of support among County FA members for a return to the days when the chair would be appointed from within their own august ranks.
Football Association shareholders pass on chance of reform Matt Scott 2010
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But apparently the "groundswell" that Bonner promised to generate against clean energy legislation wasn't quite strong enough, so Bonner's staff guy on the project resorted to forgery.
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But you really have to wonder, when this is the relatively routine stock-in-trade of firms like Bonner, why members of Congress pay any attention -- they may not know that such letters are forged, but they're far too smart not to know how phony the "groundswell" of public opinion they allege to represent is.
treeseed commented on the word groundswell
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
noun
Date: 1786
1.usually ground swell : a broad deep undulation of the ocean caused by an often distant gale or seismic disturbance
2: a rapid spontaneous growth (as of political opinion) a groundswell of support
January 30, 2008
fbharjo commented on the word groundswell
prelude to an earthburst?
April 5, 2012