# What does ‘the calm before the storm’ mean?

To “the calm before the storm” means to a peaceful interval before trouble. The phrase is old and proverbial in seafaring English; Brewer's records it without fixing a single origin.

## What it means

- The phrase is old and proverbial in seafaring English; Brewer's records it without fixing a single origin.

## Action steps

1. Common in politics, business, and personal life.
2. Example: The office was quiet — the calm before the storm of quarter-end.

## Sources

- [Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — Internet Archive scan](https://archive.org/details/brewers-dictionary-of-phrase-and-fable)

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