thunder burst

A burst or peal of thunder. thunder-clap, s. A clap, peal, or burst of thunder; the sudden report of a discharge of atmospheric electricity. "Rayne, hayle, and snowe do pay them sad penance, And dread full thunder - claps (that make them quake) With flames and flashing lights that you sand changes make." Spenser: F. Q. ( Of Mutabilitie ), vii. 23. thunder-cloud, s . Meteor.: A cloud from which lightning flashes forth, or may do so, with accompanying thunder. It is a modification of the nimbus, but, as a rule, is darker than the ordinary type of that cloud. When several exist the space between them is sometimes of a peculiar color. They vary greatly in elevation, some being very low-a good many about 3,000 feet high, while others have been known to reach 16,000 feet in elevation. "The myth.. resolves itself into simple phrases, which spoke of the thunder - cloud as looming over the city from day to day."-Cox: Introd, to Mythology , p. 1 21. *thunder-crack, s. A clap of thunder. "Nor is he moved with all the thunder-cracks Of tyrants' threats, or with the surly brow Of Pow'r."-Daniel: To the Counte of Cumber land. IMG:content-1085.png:[blocks in formation] "O thou great thunder - darter of Olympus, forget that thou art Jove, the king of gods."- Shakesp .: Troilus and Cre ida, ii. 3. thunder-dint, subst. The noise of thunder; a thundering noise. thunder-dirt, subst . The New Zealand name for the gelatinous volva of I leo dicty on, formerly eaten by the natives. ( Berkeley .) thunder-drop, subst. One of the large, heavy, thinly-scattered drops of rain which precede a thunderstorm. "As thunder- drops fall on a sleeping sea." Tennyson: Dream of Fair Women, 122. thunder-fish, s . 1. Mal apter urus electric us. [MAL APTER URUS.] 2. Misgurnus fo il is . (Nature, March 25, 1886, p. 497.) [WEATHER-FISH.] *thunder-fit, subst . A shock or noise resembling thunder. IMG:content-1086.png:[blocks in formation] Anthropology : A deity who, in the mythology of races of low culture, are supposed to preside over or cause thunder. "The place of the Thunder - god in polytheistic religion is similar to that of the Rain-god, in many cases even to entire coincidence. But his character is rather of wrath than of beneficence, a character which we have half lost the power to realize, since the agonizing terror of thunderstorms which appals savage minds has dwindled away in ours, now that we behold in it not the manifestation of divine wrath, but the restoration of electric equilibrium." -Tylor: Prim . Cult . (ed. 1873), 11. 262.