thunderbolt

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English

Etymology

From thunder +‎ bolt.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈθʌndə(ɹ)ˌboʊlt/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

thunderbolt (plural thunderbolts)

  1. A flash of lightning accompanied by a crash of thunder.
    News of the actress’s death came as a thunderbolt to her fans.
    • c. 1587–1588, , Tamburlaine the Great. The First Part , 2nd edition, part 1, London: Richard Iones, , published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene iii:
      Our quiuering Lances ſhaking in the aire, / And bullets like Ioues dreadfull Thunderbolts, / Enrolde in flames and fiery ſmoldering miſtes, / Shall threat the Gods more than Cyclopian warres,
    • 1952 July, W. R. Watson, “Sankey Viaduct and Embankment”, in Railway Magazine, page 487:
      He describes the operation thus: "The heavy ram employed to impart the finishing strokes, hoisted up with double purchase and snail's pace to the summit of the Piling Engine, and then falling down like a thunderbolt on the head of the devoted timber, driving it perhaps a single half inch in to the stratum below, is well calculated to put to the test the virtue of patience, while it illustrates the old adage of—slow and sure."
  2. (figuratively) An event that is terrible, horrific or unexpected.
    • 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:
      the Scipios' worth, those thunderbolts of war
    • 1819, Lord Byron, Mazeppa, a Poem, London: John Murray, , →OCLC, stanza I, page 5, lines 13–14:
      A greater wreck, a deeper fall, / A shock to one—a thunderbolt to all.
  3. Vehement threatening or censure; especially, ecclesiastical denunciation; fulmination.
  4. (soccer) A very powerful shot.
    • 2011 February 5, Michael Kevin Darling, “Tottenham 2 - 1 Bolton”, in BBC‎:
      Substitute Niko Kranjcar's injury-time thunderbolt gave Tottenham a dramatic win over Bolton.
  5. (paleontology) A belemnite, or thunderstone.
  6. (heraldry) A charge in the form of two joined bundles with four rays of lightning emerging from them, resembling the thunderbolt of Jupiter.
  7. A daring or irresistible hero.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Verb

thunderbolt (third-person singular simple present thunderbolts, present participle thunderbolting, simple past and past participle thunderbolted)

  1. (transitive, rare) To strike with a thunderbolt.
  2. (rare) To move swiftly and violently.
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