From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishconvulsecon‧vulse /kənˈvʌls/ verb 1 [intransitive]SHAKE if your body or a part of it convulses, it moves violently and you are not able to control it He sat down, his shoulders convulsing with sobs.2 → be convulsed with laughter/anger etc3 [transitive] if something such as a war convulses a country, it causes a lot of problems or confusion A wave of nationalist demonstrations convulsed the country in 1919.→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
convulse• She was suddenly convulsed by a hacking cough.• In 1992, the city was convulsed by rioting and demonstrations.• In convulsed countries around the world, too much food donated by well-meaning people feeds murderous gunmen instead of needy families.• Veins convulse everywhere in my arm, so shot full of liquid I am sure they will burst.• The body convulsed, flopping around the roof in a series of uncoordinated half-somersaults, leaving a trail of blood like footprints.• The area around you began to convulse like an epileptic ward.• Her feral body takes its own route, grinding, convulsing, swallowing.• The building that had fairly convulsed with activity was now deceased.• Samuel was convulsed with fury at this new evidence of skulduggery, resolved that no holds would be barred now.• All of us were convulsed with laughter.Origin convulse (1600-1700) Latin past participle of convellere “to pull violently”, from com- ( → COM-) + vellere “to pull out” 