thunderboltn.
/ˈθʌndəbəʊlt/, U.S. /ˈθəndərˌboʊlt/ 1.
a. A supposed bolt or dart formerly believed to be the destructive agent in a lightning-flash when it ‘strikes’ anything; a flash of lightning conceived as an intensely hot solid body moving rapidly through the air and impinging upon something: in mythology an attribute of Jove, Thor, or other deity. Cf. bolt n.1 2.In later use often a vague rhetorical or poetic expression for a destructive lightning-flash or thunderstroke.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > destruction > [noun] > one who or that which destroys > thunder or lightning as a destructive agency
thunderc893
thunder-dintc1374
thunder-flonec1380
thunder-blasta1400
thunderboltc1440
thunder-stone1598
thunder-clap1610
thunderstrokea1616
trisulc1637
thunder-ball1820
the world > matter > light > naturally occurring light > [noun] > lightning > bead or forked lightning > flash of
laitc900
slaughta1300
levinc1300
fire-slaughta1400
flaughta1400
thunderboltc1440
fudder1513
fire-flaughta1522
flag of firea1522
bolt1535
strokea1542
lightning bolta1560
lightning1560
fire-bolt?1562
fulgur1563
fulmen1563
thunder-thump1563
light-bolt1582
fire-flash1586
blaze1590
flake1590
clap1591
blastc1665
glade1744
streak1781
thunder-ball1820
leader stroke1934
the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > bad weather > thunder and lightning > [noun] > lightning > stroke of > thunderbolt
fudderc1429
thunderboltc1440
bolt1535
fire-bolt?1562
fulmen1563
light-bolt1582
thunder-ball1820
c1440 Alphabet of Tales 49 Þis womman was burnyd to dede with a thondre-bolte.
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Psalms lxxvii[i]. 48 How he smote their..flockes with hote thonder boltes.
1560 J. Daus tr. J. Sleidane Commentaries f. cccclxjv In the beginning of..Ianuary..were horrible tempestes, thondering, and lightening, and thonderboltes.
1632 W. Lithgow Totall Disc. Trav. ii. 69 Men should dread the thunder-bolt, when they see the lightning.
1710 W. King Heathen Gods & Heroes (1722) x. 33 All the rest [of the Giants]..fell by the Thunderbolts of Jupiter.
1890 W. E. Norris Misadventure xvii The intelligence..had fallen upon him like a thunderbolt from a clear sky.
b. An imaginary or conventional representation of the above as an emblem of a deity, a heraldic bearing, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > indication > insignia > heraldic devices collective > representations of heavenly bodies or phenomena > [noun] > thunderbolt
thunderbolt1728
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. (at cited word) On Medals, the Thunder-bolt is sometimes found to accompany the Emperors Heads; as that of Augustus.
1823 P. Nicholson New Pract. Builder 489 The head of Medusa, or the Furies, thunderbolts, and other symbols of horror.
1894 Parker's Gloss. Heraldry (at cited word) Azure, a sun between three thunderbolts, winged and shafted or.
2.
a. figurative. Something very destructive, terrible, or startling; esp. an awful denunciation, censure, or threat proceeding from a high authority; some sudden or unexpected, and hence startling event or piece of news, usually untoward.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > malediction > [noun]
cursea1050
malisonc1300
woea1425
evil thee1509
thunderbolt1559
vae1559
thunder-crack1577
ban1590
wish1597
anathema1603
imprecation1603
execration1605
thunder-clap1610
deprecationa1661
effulminationa1670
Maranatha1769
winze1786
cuss1829
sailor's blessing1876
blessing1878
sailor's farewell1937
the world > existence and causation > creation > destruction > [noun] > one who or that which destroys
baneOE
losera1340
leeserc1380
stroyerc1380
destroyer1382
ravenerc1390
castera1400
confounder1401
wastera1425
stroyc1440
undoerc1440
unmakerc1450
confounderess1509
hydraa1513
stroy-good1540
abolisher1548
thunderbolt1559
disannullera1572
stroy-all1573
ruiner1581
down-puller1583
murdererc1585
spendingc1595
blaster1598
assassin1609
ruinater1609
dissolver1611
minerc1614
destructioner1621
fordoer1631
sinker1632
destructive1640
deletery1642
assassinatea1658
ruinator1658
destroyeress1662
destructora1691
dissolvent1835
solvent1841
wrecker1882
destructant1889
the mind > goodness and badness > state of being accursed > curse > [noun] > as everyday imprecation
oatha1225
malisonc1300
reproach1485
thunderbolt1559
revilement1577
thunder-crack1577
revile1579
ban1590
wish1597
thunder-clap1610
expletive1647
rapper1675
cuss1771
winze1786
Goddammit1800
goddam1828
dirty word1842
blank1854
emphatic1868
swear1871
sailor's blessing1876
blessing1878
goldarn1879
swear-word1883
rounder1885
curse-word1897
dang1906
sailor's farewell1937
the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disapproval > denunciation > [noun] > violent
thunderc1380
fulmination1502
thunderbolt1559
thundering1564
thunder-crack1577
thunder-clap1610
thunder-blast1884
the mind > mental capacity > expectation > surprise, unexpectedness > [noun] > cause of surprise
marvelc1300
miracle1586
surprise1592
bricolea1631
surprisal1660
thunderbolt1787
startle1823
start1825
startler1829
eye-opener1833
a bolt from (or out of) the blue1837
shock1841
thunder-clap1852
startlement1867
staggerer1872
thunderstroke1880
Scarborough warning1890
surprise packet1900
bombshell1926
curveball1936
turn-up1942
a turn-up for the book(s)1948
conversation stopper1959
left turn1986
1559 Primer in Priv. Prayers (1851) 91 To the thunderbolts of thy word put violence.
1591 E. Spenser Ruines of Rome in Complaints sig. R3v To dart abroad the thunder bolts of warre.
1633 T. Stafford Pacata Hibernia i. xv. 93 Terrified with the Priests Thunderbolts of Excommunication.
1787 F. Burney Diary 30 Jan. (1842) III. 312 This information was a thunderbolt to her.
1860 C. Reade Cloister & Hearth xxxviii Awaking from the stupor into which this thunderbolt of tyranny had thrown him.
b. Applied to a person noted for violent or destructive action; one who acts with furious and resistless energy.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > violent behaviour > [noun] > person
tyrant1377
routera1500
termagant1508
ruffy?a1513
ruffiana1525
pander1593
thunderbolt1593
bully1604
ruffiano1611
tearer1633
violentoa1661
boy1662
violent1667
hardhead1774
Arab1788
ring-tailed roarer1828
blood-tub1853
tornado1863
stormer1886
hooligan1898
Apache1902
ned1910
rough-up1911
radge1923
goonda1926
pretty-boy1931
tough baby1932
bad-john1935
hoon1938
shit-kicker1954
tough boy1958
oafo1959
ass-kicker1962
droog1962
trog1983
1593 G. Harvey Pierces Supererogation 13 Oratours..infinitely ouermatched by this hideous thunderbolt in humanity.
1599 J. Hayward 1st Pt. Henrie IIII 2 Prince Edward the thunderbolt of warre in his time.
1709 S. Centlivre Busie Body iii. iii. 33 I have done you a piece of Service; I told the old Thunderbolt, that the Gentleman that was gone in, was [etc.].
1743 R. Blair Grave 9 Where are the mighty Thunderbolts of War? The Roman Cæsars?
1850 R. W. Emerson Napoleon in Representative Men vi. 232 A thunderbolt in the attack, he was found invulnerable in his entrenchments.
c. In Sport, a fast hard-struck shot or stroke.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > [noun] > motion of ball > types of ball by motion
grounder1849
daisy-cutter1889
rainbow1891
poached egg1893
screamer1896
scorcher1900
swerver1902
slam1931
thunderbolt1959
1959 Times 29 May 4/7 [Lawn Tennis] Maloney, with his ‘thunderbolts’ made no mistake in the next for the match.
1977 Times 7 Feb. 7/2 Heighway, at full steam, lashed a thunderbolt past Latchford from the edge of the box.
3. Locally applied to various stones, fossils, or mineral concretions, formerly or popularly supposed to be thunderbolts (sense 1):
Categories »
a. a belemnite or other fossil cephalopod.
Categories »
b. a flint celt or similar prehistoric implement.
c. a mass or nodule of iron pyrites occurring in chalk.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > constituent materials > stone > a stone > [noun] > stone with mythical properties > siderite or thunderstone
siderites1553
siderite1610
thunderbolt1618
thunder-stone1681
1618 S. Latham New & 2nd Bk. Falconrie xxxii. 140 Take a thunderbolt, the which is found most commonly in the fields, in some channell or watercourse,..put it into a hot fire and burne it well.
a1661 W. Brereton Trav. (1844) 41 The dart of a thunderbolt about the length and thickness of your little finger.
1712 R. Steele Spectator No. 431. ⁋3 Thunder~bolts, a certain long, round bluish Stone, which I found among the Gravel in our Garden.
1814 W. Scott Diary 8 Aug. in J. G. Lockhart Mem. Life Scott (1837) III. iv. 164 The most superb collection of the stone axes..called celts. The Zetlanders call them thunderbolts, and keep them in their houses as a receipt against thunder.
1826 R. Polwhele Trad. & Recoll. II. ix. 607 For ‘the reumatis’..I knew an old woman who used to boil a celt (vulgarly a dunderbolt or thunderbolt) for some hours, and then dispense her water to the diseased.
1862 Athenæum 30 Aug. 280 Go..into any of the more productive chalk-pits.., and the workmen will offer you fragmentary ‘thunderbolts’ (belemnites) and nautili.
d. Applied to a meteoric stone or meteorite.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > constituent materials > stone > a stone > [noun] > meteorite
stone1628
sky stone1750
thunderbolt1802
meteoric stone1809
meteorolite1812
ceraunite1814
meteor stone1818
meteorite1823
uranolith1823
1802 Howard in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 92 169 Because explosion and report have generally accompanied the descent of [meteorolites], the name of thunderbolt, or thunderstone, has ignorantly attached itself to them.
1830 J. F. W. Herschel Prelim. Disc. Study Nat. Philos. 120 These circumstances..long caused them to be confounded with an effect of lightning, and called thunderbolts.
1884 A. Lang Custom & Myth i. 10 Village wisdom determines that the wedge-shaped piece of metal is a ‘thunderbolt’.
1949 ‘J. Nelson’ Backwoods Teacher vi. 57 We spoke of lightning and ‘thunderbolts’. Of these latter, Fritz Baily said his uncle used to ‘gather them up—and we still get lots kickin' 'round the barn.’.. He promised to bring me one. (Next morning he did—a meteorite the size of his fist.)
4. Applied (chiefly locally) to various plants:
a. the corn poppy (= thunder-flower n. (b) at thunder n. Compounds 2).
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular cultivated or ornamental plants > particular flower or plant esteemed for flower > [noun] > poppy and allied flowers > poppy
poppyeOE
wild poppya1300
red poppya1400
mecop1480
corn-rose1527
field poppy1597
redweed1609
darnel1612
cockrose?1632
canker1640
tell-love1640
rose poppy1648
erratic poppy1661
corn poppy1671
headwark1691
cop-rose1776
headachea1825
thunderbolt1847
thunder-flower1853
Iceland poppy1870
Greenland poppy1882
1847–78 J. O. Halliwell Dict. Archaic & Provinc. Words Thunder-bolt. (1) The corn poppy. West.
1886 J. Britten & R. Holland Dict. Eng. Plant-names Thunder Bolts, Papaver Rhœas.
b. the bladder campion.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > according to family > Caryophyllaceae (chickweeds and allies) > [noun] > campion and ragged robin
cow-rattle14..
campion1576
behen1578
crowsoap1578
white campion1578
catchfly1597
feather-top wild campion1597
frothy poppy1597
lime-wort1597
nonsuch1597
sea campion1597
spattling poppy (also campion)1597
Greek rose1601
lychnis1601
knap-bottle1640
moss pink1641
Lobel's catchfly1664
red robin1678
moss campion1690
red campion1728
round robin1741
Silene1751
Nottingham catchfly1762
silenal1836
Robin Hood1844
thunder-flower1853
gunpowder weed1860
sea-catchfly1864
robin redbreast1880
poppy1886
thunderbolt1886
rattleweed1893
cancer1896
bladder-campion-
1886 J. Britten & R. Holland Dict. Eng. Plant-names Thunder Bolts, Silene inflata. Kent.., where the children snap the calyxes, which explode with a slight report.
c. the white campion.
ΚΠ
1886 J. Britten & R. Holland Dict. Eng. Plant-names Thunder Bolts, Lychnis vespertina. Rutl.
d. a species of iris, Iris Xiphium.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular cultivated or ornamental plants > particular flower or plant esteemed for flower > [noun] > iris and related flowers > irises
gladdona700
gladiolusc1000
flaga1387
fleur-de-lisc1390
regworta1400
yellow flag1526
lug1538
yellow lily1555
spurge-wort1562
swordling1562
garden flag1578
ireos1578
iris1578
stinking iris1578
water flag1578
yellow iris1578
fane1597
Florentine flower-de-luce1597
stinking gladdon1597
stinking sedge1597
velvet flower-de-luce1597
orris1609
sisyrinchium1629
luce1642
Florence iris1664
cuttle-haft1688
blue flag1732
snake's-head iris1739
flag-flower1753
roast-beef plant1800
shalder1825
flag-leaf1827
sweet sedge1839
poison flag1840
flagger1842
wedding-flower1869
mourning iris1874
flagon1878
Rocky Mountain iris1880
Florentine iris1882
Japanese iris1883
flag-lily1884
sword-flag1884
blue iris1886
thunderbolt1898
scorpion iris1900
1898 Westm. Gaz. 28 June 3/1 That strangely beautiful Spanish iris the Thunderbolt, a large flower of browns and yellows and greyish purples.
Compounds
thunderbolt beetle n. a species of beetle, Arhopalus fulminans, with dark wing-cases crossed by zigzag grey lines.
thunderbolt raid n. (also thunderbolt attack) a short-lived but heavy air-raid.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > hostilities in the air > [noun] > air operation > bombing raid > type of
terror raid1917
blitzkrieg1939
blitz1940
fire-blitz1940
fire-raid1940
Baedeker raid1942
nuisance raid1942
thunderbolt raid1943
1943 Hutchinson's Pict. Hist. War 25 Nov. 1942–16 Feb. 1943 240/1 At night Lancasters and Halifaxes carry out a large-scale ‘thunderbolt’ raid on Duesseldorf, dropping several hundred tons of bombs in a 20-minutes attack.
1944 H. Hawton Night Bombing v. 66 There is no necessary connection between concentrated and precision bombing, but it would be quite wrong to think that the ‘thunderbolt attack’, as it is sometimes called, lacks exactness. The Renault factory was almost completely demolished in an attack of short duration.
thunderbolt-stone n. see quot., and cf. sense 3.
ΚΠ
1871 E. B. Tylor Primitive Culture II. xvi. 238 They [Sioux Indians] consider the lightning entering the ground to scatter there in all directions thunderbolt-stones, which are flints, etc.
Derivatives
ˈthunderbolt v. (transitive) (a) to strike with or as with a thunderbolt; to astonish, amaze, or terrify; (b) to hurl or dart like a thunderbolt.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > expectation > surprise, unexpectedness > surprise, astonish [verb (transitive)]
gloppena1250
abavea1400
ferlya1400
forferlya1400
supprisec1405
stonish1488
surprend1549
stagger1556
thunderbolta1586
admire1598
startle1598
thunderstrike1613
siderate1623
dumbfound1653
surprise1655
stammer1656
strange1657
astartlea1680
dumbfounder1710
knock1715
to take aback1751
flabbergast1773
to take back1796
stagnate1829
to put aback1833
to make (a person) sit up1878
to knock, lay (out), etc., cold1884
transmogrify1887
rock1947
to flip out1964
the mind > emotion > fear > quality of inspiring fear > quality of terribleness > terrify [verb (transitive)]
afearOE
affrightOE
breec1000
offrightlOE
agastc1225
offearc1225
dreadc1250
agrisec1275
begallowc1320
ashunchc1325
adreadc1330
affrayc1330
fleya1400
grise1513
terrify1536
fray-bug1551
thunderbolta1586
fear-blast1593
gaster1593
hazen1593
terrorc1595
affrighten1615
ter-terrifya1618
flaite1642
pavefy1656
repall1687
hobgoblin1707
scarify1794
to scare the daylights out of1951
a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1590) iii. xxi. sig. Vu3 Sorrow not being able so quickly to thunderbolte her harte thorough her senses.
ˈthunderbolted adj. struck by a thunderbolt; charged with thunderbolts.
ΚΠ
1593 Sonnet in G. Harvey Pierces Supererogation sig. **4v He brandisheth the whurlewinde..And thunderbolteth so-confounding shott.
1623 J. Wodroephe Spared Houres Souldier 487/2 A culpable and indebted Man is alwayes thunder-bolted.
1827 W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd 31 It beat the thunder~boltit leven.
1888 F. T. Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk. (at cited word) He (the tower) was thunderbolted about of a sixty year agone.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1912; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.c1440- sock it to me etc!
- sock it to me them!
- sock puppet
- sock-footed
- sock-guard
- sock-iron
- sock-it-to-me
- sock-lamb
- sock-plate
- sock-suspender
- sockdolager
- sockdolagers
- sockdologer
- sockdologers
- socked
- sockeroo
- socket
- socket end
- socket joint
- socket leg
- socket outlet
- socket piece
- socket pipe
- socket pole
- socket set