fulminate
/ˈfʊlmɪneɪt
/ /ˈfʌlmɪneɪt/verb [no object]
1Express vehement protest: all fulminated against the new curriculum...
- The monks opposed Abelard and convinced the Church to condemn him - twice - and the papacy periodically fulminated against the rationalist discourse carried out in [his university] classrooms.
- His early, all-male Hamlet, complete with semi-naked gravediggers, had the newspapers, both tabloid and broadsheet, fulminating at his audacity.
- So the Senate rule that liberals fulminated against for decades has become sacrosanct.
Synonyms
protest, rail, rage, rant, thunder, storm, declaim, inveigh, speak out, make/take a stand;
denounce, decry, condemn, criticize, censure, disparage, attack, execrate, arraign
informal mouth off about, kick up a fuss/stink about, go on about
rare animadvert, excoriate, vociferate about, vituperate
2 literary Explode violently or flash like lightning: thunder fulminated around the house
Synonyms
explode, flash, crack, detonate, blow up, go off;
rumble
3 (usually as adjective fulminating) Medicine (Of a disease or symptom) develop suddenly and severely: fulminating appendicitis...
- The course of the anemia ranges from mild with gradually developing symptoms to acute with fulminating symptoms.
- The sudden, aggressive and fulminating impact of the carcinoma had rendered him incapable of continuing his responsibilities as father to his daughters.
- In some cases, there may not be any symptoms, while in others it may produce mild to moderate dysentery or even fulminating dysentery with fever, severe abdominal cramps and rectal pain.
noun Chemistry
A salt or ester of fulminic acid.In the short span of years between 1807 and 1820, metallic fulminates proved an efficient method for igniting powder charges and developed into the familiar and practical percussion cap....
- It took the detonation from his mercury fulminate blasting cap to initiate the explosion.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Latin fulminat- 'struck by lightning', from fulmen, fulmin- 'lightning'. The earliest sense (derived from medieval Latin fulminare) was 'denounce formally', later 'issue formal censures' (originally said of the Pope). A sense 'emit thunder and lightning', based on the original Latin meaning, arose in the early 17th century, and hence 'explode violently' (late 17th century).