tempest-tossed adjective2 •(literary) Battered by a storm or storms.When the dark storm and the howling blast sweep with their wintry pinions over its troubled bosom, I shall think of the rocking ship and the tempest-tossed sailor, whose home is on the faithless sea. — 1842 •(figurative) Beset by adversity or fraught with dissension.Divorced from Allan Wayne after a tempest-tossed marriage notable for locking each other out and scares over alleged kidnapings^([sic]) of their daughter, she married Arnold Grant in 1962. — 1963 formsmore tempest-tossed · most tempest-tossed