towering rage, in a

towering rage, in a

Extremely angry. Towering has been used in the sense of rising to a pitch of violence or intensity since Shakespeare’s time. Shakespeare wrote, “The brauery of his griefe did put me into a towring passion” (Hamlet, 5.2). The precise modern locution appeared in William Black’s Green Pastures and Piccadilly (1877), “He came down in a towering rage.” It may now be obsolescent.
See also: towering
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • rising tide, a
  • wrong scent, to be on the
  • here's the rub
  • that's the rub
  • there is/lies the rub
  • there(in) lies the rub
  • therein
  • there's the rub
  • milk of human kindness
  • milk of human kindness, the