The Collaborative International Dictionary
Thunderbolt \Thun"der*bolt`\, n.
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.
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Something resembling lightning in suddenness and effectiveness.
The Scipios' worth, those thunderbolts of war.
--Dryden. -
Vehement threatening or censure; especially, ecclesiastical denunciation; fulmination.
He severely threatens such with the thunderbolt of excommunication.
--Hakewill. -
(Paleon.) A belemnite, or thunderstone.
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.