Idiom
calm before the storm
Meaning
A period of peace before a disturbance or crisis; an unnatural or false calm before a storm.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“It is very quiet now, just the calm before the storm.”
“The office was strangely silent this morning, but we all knew it was just the calm before the storm of the holiday rush.”
“The soldiers stood in the trenches, watching the horizon in a tense silence that felt like the calm before the storm.”
Examples
simple
“It is very quiet now, just the calm before the storm.”
contextual
“The office was strangely silent this morning, but we all knew it was just the calm before the storm of the holiday rush.”
complex
“The soldiers stood in the trenches, watching the horizon in a tense silence that felt like the calm before the storm.”
Origin
From sailors' and farmers' observation of the eerie lull that often precedes a storm; figurative since the 17th century.
Key words
Related idioms
- Level
- B1 · Intermediate
- Updated