释义 |
▪ I. thundering, vbl. n.|ˈθʌndərɪŋ| [f. thunder v. + -ing1.] The action of the verb thunder. 1. lit. (see thunder v. 1); also in pl.: = thunder n. 1, 1 c (now rare or arch.).
a1100O.E. Chron. an. 1086 [miswr. 1085], Swa stor þunring & læᵹt wes, swa þæt hit acwealde maniᵹe men. 1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 7763 Tempestes þer come Þondringe & liȝtinge ek þat slou men ilome. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xi. i. (1495) 381 Ayre strongly meuyd makyth wyndes lyghtnynge and thondrynge drawe togyder. 1526Tindale Rev. xix. 6 As the voyce off many waters, and as the voyce off stronge thondrynges [so 1539 (Great), 1560 (Genev.), 1611; 1881 R.V. thunders]. 1555Eden Decades 90 Soo many thunderinges, lyghtnynge, and tempestes wherwith they are soo often troubeled. 1727[Dorrington] Philip Quarll (1816) 80 Great thundering and lightning. 1884Tait Mind in Matter (1892) 200 At the bidding of Moses, thunderings, lightnings, and hail, by divine command, exhibited [etc.]. 2. transf. Loud resounding noise (see thunder v. 2): = thunder n. 2.
1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 414 b, Than..was the city [Metz]..beaten with shot,..the noise and Thondering thereof was hard..iiii Dutche miles beyond the Rhine. 1633P. Fletcher Purple Isl. xi. iii, Raise my soft strain to high thundering. 1822Byron Werner v. i. 113 The thundering Of far artillery. 1866Dickens Lett. (1880) II. 254 The thundering of applause..was quite staggering. b. Infliction of heavy and resounding strokes.
1592W. Wyrley Armorie, Ld. Chandos i, Whom sound he hits with staggring steps doth reel, They knew it sure that his sad thundring feel. 3. fig. Vehement threatening, invective, or the like (see thunder v. 3): = thunder n. 3.
1564Knox Bk. Com. Order (1840) 158 Lawful excommunication (for the thunderings of that Roman antichrist are but vanity and wind). 1597J. Payne Royal Exch. 42 What thundringe soever the scripture sownds agaynst yt. 1607Hieron Wks. I. 183 The thundring out of the threatnings and terror of the law. 1893E. L. Wakeman in Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch 11 May, By direst sacerdotal thunderings. 4. attrib. and Comb., as thundering-machine, an apparatus for imitating thunder in a theatre.
1826Museum Crit. II. 214 [The Greeks] had..a βροντεῖον, or artificial thundering machine, consisting of a vessel filled with stones, which was rolled along a sheet of copper. ▪ II. ˈthundering, ppl. a. (adv.) [f. as prec. + -ing2.] That thunders, in various senses. 1. a. lit. Causing or sending forth thunder; † of or characterized by thunder, thundery (obs.).
1530Palsgr. 281/1 Thundring, altitonant. 1573Tusser Husb., Author's Belief vii, That sendeth thundring claps, like terrours out of hell. 1621in Foster Eng. Factories Ind. (1906) 242 We came to anchor.., and in a flat calme began to make thundering weather. 1751J. Bartram Observ. Trav. Pennsylv., etc. 56 A rainy thundering warm day. 1856Masson Ess. vi. 179 [He] resumed his place in the public eye as the thundering Jove of the Opposition. b. Thundering Legion: see quots.
1650Baxter Saints' R. ii. vi. §6 (1651) 264 Hence the Christian soldiers in their Army were called, the Thundering Legion. 1738Chambers Cycl. II. f.12 l/2 Thundering Legion, Legio Fulminans, was a legion in the Roman army, consisting of Christian soldiers, who in the expedition of the emperor Marcus Aurelius against the Sarmatæ, Quadi, and Marcomanni, saved the whole army, then ready to perish of thirst, by procuring, with their prayers, a very plentiful shower thereon; and, at the same time, a furious hail, mixed with lightening and thunderbolts, on the enemy..: though some say, that the legion those Christians were of, was called the thundering legion before. 1831–3E. Burton Eccl. Hist. xix. (1845) 413. 1835 Penny Cycl. III. 105/1 Some unlucky legendist, not knowing that the 12th or Thundering Legion, which was engaged in this affair, had its name before it happened, took occasion to call it a Christian Legion, and to attribute the miraculous storm to the efficacy of its prayers. 2. transf. Making a noise like thunder, sounding very loudly; of sound, As loud as thunder. † thundering gold, see note s.v. fulminating ppl. a.1
1576Gascoigne Spoyle of Antwerpe B ij, The Castle had all this while, played at the Towne and trenches, with thundring shot. 1687Dryden Ode St. Cecilia's Day iii, The double, double, double beat Of the thundring Drum. 1694Salmon Bate's Dispens. (1713) 317/1 Aurum Fulminans: Lightning or Thundering Gold. c1764Gray Owen 23 There the thund'ring strokes begin. 1845J. Coulter Adv. Pacific iii. 25 A long, deep, regular sea, with a fine thundering crest on the top of the wave. 1871L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. xii. (1894) 283 The thundering fall of the Handeck becomes [in winter] a gentle thread of pure water. 3. fig. in reference to terrible invective, threatening, etc., or to powerful eloquence; sometimes to bombastic or inflated language.
1543Grafton Contn. of Harding 463 The duke of Burgoyne..wrote sharpe letters of thretenyng..whose fyrye and thundryng wordes [etc.]. 1576Fleming Panopl. Epist. 357 To resist the..outragious rule of thundering Tyraunts. a1674Clarendon Hist. Reb. xiii. §15 Thundering Letters came from the Parliament, with great menaces what they would do. 1727Pope Shaks. Wks. Pref. I. 5 The most pompous Rhymes, and thundering Versification. a1797Wilkes in J. Almon Mem. (1805) V. 35, I hear of a thundering memorial against this country from Spain. 1883J. Parker Apost. Life II. 16 The thundering eloquence. 4. a. Very energetic or forcible, violent; hence as a mere intensive: Very great or big, excessive, immense, ‘tremendous’, ‘terrific’. colloq. or slang.
1618T. Adams Love's Copy Wks. 1862 II. 420 He goes a thundering pace, that you would not think it possible to overtake him. 1632Lithgow Trav. x. 476 They all three left mee in a thundering rage. 1681Otway Soldier's Fort. i. i, I warrant him a thundering Rogue. a1704T. Brown Aristænetus' Epist. i. Wks. 1720 I. 249, I was drawing a thundring Fish out of the Water, so very large, that it made my Rod crack again. 1851Borrow Lavengro xcix, What a thundering old fool you are! 1900Barrie Tommy & Grizel v, Such a thundering lie. b. as adv. Excessively, immensely, ‘tremendously’. colloq. or slang.
1809Salmagundi 7 Mar. 95 He..prefers..telling his story among cronies of his own gender..and thundering long stories they are. 1839Havana (N.Y.) Republican 25 Dec. (Th.), He is thundering shy of me. 1852Dickens Bleak Ho. xxi, I was a thundering bad son. 1887Black Sabina Zembra 228 Don't you think that a thundering good licking would knock the laziness out of him? 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 261 A thundering soft thing it is, in a general way. Hence ˈthunderingly adv., in a thundering manner; with a noise as of thunder; fig. violently, powerfully; with fierce denunciation; excessively (slang or colloq.).
1680Honest Hodge & Ralph 19 To take the Charge off from the Pope,..the more thunderingly to Clap it upon the Phanatick. 1759H. Walpole Let. to Mann 10 May, It is well if he concludes this [campaign] as thunderingly as he did the last. 1885C. Gibbon Hard Knot II. xxxiii. 229 It's thunderingly annoying. |