a. and sb. [f. CONVULSION -ARY: cf. F. convulsionnaire.]
A. adj. Pertaining to, of the nature of, affected with, or marked by, convulsion (lit. and fig.).
1798. W. Taylor, in Monthly Rev., XXV. 515. The Abbé Winckelmann … has formed a school of declamatory connoisseurs, who ape his convulsionary extasies.
1815. Scott, Guy M., liv. After one or two desperate and almost convulsionary struggles.
1861. Craik, Hist. Eng. Lit., I. 140. This … gives it also much more of a sudden and convulsionary character.
1873. Lowell, Among my Bks., Ser. II. 210. Whatever was convulsionary and destructive in politics.
b. Pertaining to the Convulsionaries: see B.
1814. trans. Voltaire’s Candid, I. xxi. 107. I have been acquainted with the scribbling mob, the caballing mob, and the convulsionary mob.
1859. All Y. Round, No. 28. 32. The Revivals in Ireland seem to be nowise different to the Convulsionary movement.
1874. J. H. Blunt, Dict. Sects, s.v., The hold which the Convulsionary delusion had on the popular mind was considerable.
B. sb. One of a number of fanatics in France in the 18th century, who fell into convulsions and extravagances, supposed to be accompanied by miraculous cures, at the tomb of a Jansenist named François de Pâris, in the cemetery of St.-Médard near Paris. (Also in Fr. form convulsionnaire.)
1741. trans. D’Argens’ Chinese Lett., x. 59. The Convulsionaries have Fits of Madness; some leap and dance, without Rule and Cadence; others throw themselves flat along, and tumble upon the Floor.
1859. All Year Round, No. 28. 31. The Convulsionnaires, who … flung themselves into cataleptic fits before the tomb of the Archdeacon Paris.
1877. Morley, Crit. Misc., Ser. II. 86. The paroxysms of Jansenist convulsionaries, or the hysterics of Methodist negroes.
