thunder blast (thunder blast)

[ The term thunderbolt , which is nowadays rarely used except by poets (and by the penny-a-liners), preserves the old notion that something solid and intensely hot pa ed along the track of a lightning flash and buried itself in the P. G. Tait , Encyc. Brit., XXIII. 330. By the gods, my heart speaks this; And if the least fall from me not perform'd, May I be struck with thunder ! Beau. and Fl., Phil aster, v. 3. 2. The imaginary bolt or shaft (often regarded as a stone) conceived as the material agent or substance of a flash of lightning, and applause. thumpkin (thump'kin), n. [ thump (?) + -kin. Cf. thumbkin .] 1. A lumpkin; a clown. [Prov. Eng.] 2. A barn of hay. [Thieves' slang.] Thunbergia (thun-ber'ji-ä), n. [NL. (Linnæus filius, 1781), named after K. P. Thunberg , 1743- 1828, a Swedish botanist, author of the "Flora Japonica" and "Flora Capensis."] A genus of 4. An awful or startling denunciation or threat. gamopetalous plants, type of the tribe Thunber gieæ in the order Acanth aceæ. It is distinguished from Mendoncia, the other principal genus of its tribe, by its fruit, a beaked capsule with two to seeds; and from others of the order by its contorted and nearly equal corolla-lobes, and roundish seeds without a retinaculum. There are about 45 species, natives of tropical and southern Africa, Madagascar, and warm parts of Asia. They are commonly twining vines, or in a number of species low erect herbs. They bear opposite leaves, often triangular, hastate, cordate, or narrower, and purple, blue, yellow, or white flowers solitary in the axils or forming terminal racemes. The flowers often combine two colors, as T. lau rifolia ( T. Harris i ), a greenhouse climber with large yellow-throated blue flowers, and the hardy annual Titalata, orange, or white flowers with a purplish-black center. Other species, as T. grandiflora, are favorite trellis-climb and commonly known by the generic name. thunder (thunder), n. [ locally by the name black - eyed - Susan from buff, der, thondre (with excrescent das also in the D. form), earlier thoner, thuner (> E. dial. thun ner), The thunder of my cannon shall be heard. Shak., K. John, i. 1. 26. Welcome her, thunders of fort and of fleet! Tennyson, Welcome to Alexandra. The thunders of the Vatican could no longer strike terror into the heart of princes, as in the days of the Crusades. Pre scott . 5. As an exclamation, an abbreviation of by thunder , a mild oath. Compare thunder at i on . [Colloq.] - Blood-and-thunder, sensational; full of bloody deeds and bravado: noting plays, novels, etc. [Colloq.] - Cro of thunder. See cro 1 . thunder (thun'der), v. [ thunderen , thon deren, thuneren, thoneren (> E. dial. thunner ), AS . thunrian = D. donderen = OHG. donarōn, MHG. donren, MG. dunren , G. donnern = Sw. dundra Dan. dundre , thunder; from the noun.] I. in trans. 1. To give forth thunder; resound with thunder; formerly, to lighten (and thunder): often used impersonally: as, it thundered IMG:content-0371.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-0372.png:[blocks in formation] 3. A stone or other hard concretion of distinctive shape, usually tapering or spear-like, found in the ground, and supposed in popular superstition to have been the material substance of a thunderbolt (in sense 2), and to have fallen from heaven with the lightning. Specifically - ( a ) One of various polished stone implements, celts, and the like, found in the ground, supposed to have fallen from the sky. Also called thunder - ax, thunder - hammer, thunder -stone, cerau nia, and storm - stone. (b) A ma of iron pyrites occurring, either as a nodule or a bunch of crystals, in the chalk of England. (c) One of sundry fo il cephalopods, as belemnites. Also called thunder -stone. See cut under belemnite. 4. Figuratively, one who is daring or irresistible; one who acts with fury or with sudden and resistle force. The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: The Century dictionary IMG:content-0374.png:[blocks in formation] 6. pl. The white campion ( Lychnis vesperti na ), the corn-poppy ( Papaver Rhaas ), or the bladder-campion ( Silene Cucubalus ) - the last so named from the slight report made by exploding the inflated calyx. Britten and Holland. [Prov. Eng.]