English

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Noun

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storm in a tea-kettle

  1. Alternative form of storm in a teacup: synonym of tempest in a teapot
    • 1887, Henry Theophilus Finck, Romantic Love and Personal Beauty [1]
      But this momentary ebullition of feeling is but a storm in a tea-kettle compared to the ferocity of a jealous lover seeking to devour his rival.
    • 1908, The Parliamentary Debates [2]
      Altogether this was rather a storm in a tea-kettle.
    • 1992, Linda Goodman, Linda Goodman's Love Signs [3]
      The Pisces ability to shrug complacently when things go wrong, refuse to make mountains out of molehills, stir up a storm in a teakettle, or cut down a beanstalk for no reason...leaving poor Jack to fall to the ground with a thud...is such a lovely thing.
    • 1999, Izaak Mansk, Emil Brut [4]
      So, I feel sure, and Mr. Willoughby also, that what we have now is a “storm in a tea-kettle”, so he called it today on the telephone to me, and he is the specialist, the famous nephrologist, who knows intimately Mr. Hartman’s case.