- Thunderbolt
- Thunderbolt Thun"der*bolt`, n.
1. A shaft of lightning; a brilliant stream of electricity
passing from one part of the heavens to another, or from
the clouds to the earth.
[1913 Webster]
2. Something resembling lightning in suddenness and effectiveness. [1913 Webster]
The Scipios' worth, those thunderbolts of war. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
3. Vehement threatening or censure; especially, ecclesiastical denunciation; fulmination. [1913 Webster]
He severely threatens such with the thunderbolt of excommunication. --Hakewill. [1913 Webster]
4. (Paleon.) A belemnite, or thunderstone. [1913 Webster]
{Thunderbolt beetle} (Zo["o]l.), a long-horned beetle ({Arhopalus fulminans}) whose larva bores in the trunk of oak and chestnut trees. It is brownish and bluish-black, with W-shaped whitish or silvery markings on the elytra. [1913 Webster] [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
