1A flash of lightning with a simultaneous crash of thunder.

1. 1.1 A supposed bolt or shaft believed to be the destructive agent in a lightning flash, especially as an attribute of a god such as Jupiter or Thor.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • Odysseus was the only one to survive Zeus' thunderbolt.
   • In revenge, Apollo killed the Cyclopes that forged Zeus' thunderbolts.
   • The Cyclopes gave Zeus the thunderbolt and Hades a helmet, gave Poseidon his trident.
   • Zeus used a thunderbolt to stop the rampage and the horses plunged into the sea.
   • Another resounding crash followed a thunderbolt striking the other arm of the statue.
   • If God isn't prepared to send three million volts through her in the form of a thunderbolt then I think Mel shouldn't be too worried about His views on the matter.
   • But we'd rather have honest mortals looking after us than deities who never take responsibility for their thunderbolts.
   • While holding siege to the city of Thebes, Jupiter threw a thunderbolt at Capaneus who did not fall, but died standing up.
   • He rode in a bright chariot with a thunderbolt in his hand as his weapon (akin to Zeus of the Greeks and Thor of the Germans).
   • The Chorus also recalls how Bacchus' mother, a mortal woman, was killed after she was tragically struck by Zeus' thunderbolt.
   • There's a reason the ancient Greeks thought Zeus hurled thunderbolts - you need an explanation for that kind of unpredictable terror.
   • The enraged Zeus sent a thunderbolt hurtling down to shatter the cliff, and with blasts of wind, opened an abyss-dungeon deep within the trembling earth.
   • When Julius entered, Michelangelo - like Zeus with his thunderbolts - hurled planks from the scaffolding down at the Holy Father, routing him from the chapel.
   • The three brothers became the blacksmiths of the Olympian gods, creating Zeus' thunderbolts, Poseidon's trident.
   • Suppose a thunderbolt was sent down to strike him dead.
   • I'm sure God, long famous in moments of pique for hurling His thunderbolts about the place, cannot enjoy having this kind of intellectual sissy claiming to speak for Him.
   • In the latter, a monstrous giant steals Zeus's thunderbolts, which are retrieved in a manner similar to Thor's thunderweapons.
   • Phillip Adams is right for once: No just god could have let this happen, nor restrained his thunderbolts, either, as Luke Darcy was robbed of his Brownlow.
   • In Armenian traditions, the fire and lightning god had powers to stay the dragon's control of the heavens, as could thunderbolts in Macedonian myth.
   • When he bragged about this, Jupiter made him lame with a thunderbolt.
2. 1.2 Used to refer to a very sudden or unexpected event or item of news, especially of an unpleasant nature.
   the full force of what she had been told hit her like a thunderbolt

   Example sentencesExamples

   • In Brahms, he burst on the stage with his wife, NYCB principal Jenifer Ringer, and thunderbolts started crashing.
   • The words hit Michael like a thunderbolt and he slams the phone down, trying to think about what he should do next.
   • The idea that we should not be worrying about terrorism I think has to strike as something of a thunderbolt to many people.
   • As with Powell, you can see it in her opinions in the early 1980s: the tentativeness, the discomfort with hurling judicial thunderbolts.
   • Soon, the thunderbolt arrived in the form of another news flash that legal battles could not be fought by anyone on matter relating to the emergency.
   • Blair was at 35,000 feet, en route to Tokyo, when news of the scientist's suicide reached him like a thunderbolt on Friday morning.
   • This will come as a thunderbolt to all the campaigners who have fought for the retention of services in Down.
   • The feelings of concern for your own children is overwhelming, and hits you like a thunderbolt.
   • It almost seemed a reversal of nature that there should be a reply to the thunderbolts of Clark.
   • The rumblings from Argentina started to become thunderbolts and about a month later, a mad Arab destroyed the visible essence of western imperialism and capitalism.
   • Otherwise I'm going to have to conclude that this is a sort of disguised overnegation, a rhetorical thunderbolt that blows back semantically the wrong way.
   • September 17, 1999 was the day the Supreme Court's Marshall Decision struck the region's coastal communities like a thunderbolt.
   • She burst into the late '60s-early 1970s like a thunderbolt with a mix of her own creative writing and versions of the legendary Bob Dylan: Revolution!
   • The news was a thunderbolt to those who knew the couple.
   • My unmarried survey respondents seem to understand that friendship is the basis of a good marriage even as they hold out for chemistry and thunderbolts and soulmates.
   • The nomination of John Bolton hit the U.N. like a thunderbolt.
   • Her murder is a political thunderbolt that, if correctly harnessed, could single-handedly save the pro-euro cause.

   Synonyms

   shock, surprise, bombshell, bolt from the blue, rude awakening, eye-opener
3. 1.3informal A very fast and powerful shot, throw, or stroke.
   Peacock slammed a thunderbolt past Beeney and then the keeper was beaten by Kelly's header

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Hogan exposed some poor Roscommon defending before unleashing a thunderbolt of a shot, which flew past Martin and almost burst the net.
   • In the 87th minute Trevor Whieldon broke up a Halton attack and found David Knapp on the right wing, Knapp fed Earnshaw, who completed his hat-trick with a thunderbolt shot from just inside the area.
   • Well, there's no arguing with Rooney when he scores a thunderbolt, is there?
   • However, he quickly made amends with a crisp strike at the end of another well-worked move and then flying winger Sam Crompton fired high into the net with a thunderbolt of a shot.
   • But they got back into the match thanks to a thunderbolt free kick from defender Lee Protheroe six minutes before the break.
   • Like all good strikers, he was in the right spot in the 15th minute after Paul Evans had crashed a thunderbolt against the inside of the post.
   • From 20 yards out, his thunderbolt crashed off the underside of the crossbar to leave Terriers' goalkeeper Ian Gray clutching at air.
   • Yi served thunderbolts through the tournament, before losing to Arun in the final.
   • England were magnificent, but were undone by a movement of real grace and vision that began with Tostao and Pele and finished with a Jairzinho thunderbolt that flashed past Gordon Banks.
   • It was McCrickard's decoy run that opened the way for half back dan Morgan to make a tremendous run through the middle be unleashing a thunderbolt shot.
   • This let off gave Crettyard some breathing space and a confident Mark Kelly clattered the Monasterevin bar with a thunderbolt shot on 32 minutes.
   • Like Marshall, Lee is a different character out on the pitch where he hurls down his thunderbolts with a fearsome accuracy and hostility to take a wicket every 32 balls, one of the best strike rates ever.
   • Hardman Nutley was awesome despite wobbling like a rookie boxer hit by a Mike Tyson thunderbolt after a heavy collision early in the match.
   • Andy Ross had a go from 30 yards and unleashed a thunderbolt into the left-hand corner.
   • Twice in the first five minutes of the second half he launched thunderbolts towards James.
   • Matt Oakley's first goal of the season, a thunderbolt 28 th-minute volley, set up Gordon Strachan's men for their first victory in six games.
   • The second half continued in the same vein with Evans saving spectacularly from a Connor thunderbolt.
   • Just two minutes later, the marauding Jamaicans added the third when the goalkeeper failed to hold onto Damani Ralph's thunderbolt and Hyde responded fastest to ram home from inside the box.
   • Five minutes before the break, they came closer still, when a Davids thunderbolt cannoned off Reina.
   • The second half got off to an explosive start with a thunderbolt shot from 20 yards by John Lake which gave the Old Malton ‘keeper no chance.