thunderbolts

Noun

thunderbolt (plural thunderbolts)

1. A flash of lightning accompanied by a crash of thunder.
   • Our quiuering Lances ſhaking in the aire, / And bullets like Ioues dreadfull Thunderbolts, / Enrolde in flames and fiery ſmoldering miſtes, / Shall threat the Gods more than Cyclopian warres, […]c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
2. (figuratively) An event that is terrible, horrific or unexpected.
   • News of the actress’s death came as a thunderbolt to her fans.
3. Vehement threatening or censure; especially, ecclesiastical denunciation; fulmination.
   • a thunder-bolt of warre Striking all Nations1627, G[eorge] H[akewill], An Apologie of the Power and Prouidence of God in the Gouernment of the World. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Iohn Lichfield and William Turner, […], →OCLC
4. A very powerful shot.
   • Substitute Niko Kranjcar's injury-time thunderbolt gave Tottenham a dramatic win over Bolton.2011 February 5, Michael Kevin Darling, “Tottenham 2 - 1 Bolton”, in BBC
5. A belemnite, or thunderstone.
6. A charge in the form of two joined bundles with four rays of lightning emerging from them, resembling the thunderbolt of Jupiter.

See all 10 meanings of thunderbolt