turbulent

turbulent
    adj 1: characterized by unrest or disorder or insubordination;
           "effects of the struggle will be violent and disruptive";
           "riotous times"; "these troubled areas"; "the tumultuous
           years of his administration"; "a turbulent and unruly
           childhood" [syn: {disruptive}, {riotous}, {troubled},
           {tumultuous}, {turbulent}]
    2: (of a liquid) agitated vigorously; in a state of turbulence;
       "the river's roiling current"; "turbulent rapids" [syn:
       {churning}, {roiling}, {roiled}, {roily}, {turbulent}]
    

Turbulent \Tur"bu*lent\, a. [L. turbulentus, fr. turba disorder,
   tumult: cf. F. turbulent. See {Turbid}.]
   1. Disturbed; agitated; tumultuous; roused to violent
      commotion; as, the turbulent ocean.
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            Calm region once,
            And full of peace, now tossed and turbulent.
                                                  --Milton.
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   2. Disposed to insubordination and disorder; restless;
      unquiet; refractory; as, turbulent spirits.
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            Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit. --Dryden.
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   3. Producing commotion; disturbing; exciting.
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            Whose heads that turbulent liquor fills with fumes.
                                                  --Milton.
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   Syn: Disturbed; agitated; tumultuous; riotous; seditious;
        insubordinate; refractory; unquiet.
        [1913 Webster]
    

154 Moby Thesaurus words for "turbulent":
      agitated, amiss, anarchic, angry, askew, awry, blaring, blatant,
      blatting, blustering, blusterous, blustery, boiling, boisterous,
      brassy, brawling, brazen, breakaway, bustling, chaotic, clamant,
      clamorous, clamoursome, clanging, clangorous, clattery, cloudy,
      coarse, cockeyed, convulsed, cyclonic, deranged, dirty,
      disarranged, discomfited, discomposed, disconcerted, dislocated,
      disordered, disorderly, disorganized, disquieted, disturbed,
      excited, extreme, extremistic, factious, fast, feverish, fidgety,
      flurried, flustered, fluttering, fluttery, foul, frantic, frenzied,
      fretful, furious, fussing, fussy, haywire, hellish, howling,
      in disorder, infuriate, insensate, insurgent, insurrectionary,
      jittery, jumpy, loudmouthed, mad, mafficking, mindless, misplaced,
      mutineering, mutinous, nervous, nervy, noiseful, noisy,
      obstreperous, on the fritz, orgasmic, orgastic, out of gear,
      out of joint, out of kelter, out of kilter, out of order,
      out of place, out of tune, out of whack, pandemoniac, perturbed,
      quarrelsome, rackety, raging, rainy, rambunctious, raucous,
      ravening, raving, rebel, rebellious, restless, revolutional,
      revolutionary, riotous, rip-roaring, roaring, roily, roisterous,
      rough, roughhouse, rowdy, rowdyish, ruffled, rumbustious,
      seditionary, seditious, shaken, shaken up, shuffled, stirred up,
      storming, stormy, strepitant, strepitous, subversive, swirling,
      tempestuous, termagant, tornadic, traitorous, treasonable,
      troubled, troublous, tumultuous, turbid, typhonic, typhoonish,
      uncontrollable, uneasy, uninhibited, unpeaceful, unquiet, unruly,
      unsettled, uproarious, upset, vociferous, wild