thunder — English Dictionary

Noun

1. The loud rumbling, cracking, or crashing sound caused by expansion of rapidly heated air around a lightning bolt.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

   Examples

   Thunder is preceded by lightning.

   Thunder cracked overhead.

   More examples (1)

   With each clap of thunder echoing from one high building to another the noise was terrific.

2. A deep, rumbling noise resembling thunder.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

   Examples

   Off in the distance, he heard the thunder of hoofbeats, signalling a stampede.

3. An alarming or startling threat or denunciation.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

   Examples

   The thunders of the Vatican could no longer strike into the heart of princes.

4. The discharge of electricity; a thunderbolt.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Obsolete
   • Uncountable

   Examples

   The revenging gods / 'Gainst parricides did all their thunders bend.

5. Synonym of thunder word.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

   Examples

   Adam's fall and Vico's thunder are embodied in a word of a hundred letters, the first of ten thunders in the Wake.

Verb

1. To produce thunder; to sound, rattle, or roar, as a discharge of atmospheric electricity.

   Usage

   • impersonal

   Examples

   It thundered continuously.

2. To make a noise like thunder.

   Usage

   • Intransitive

   Examples

   The train thundered along the tracks.

   More examples (1)

   The farmer whose land the Pratincole had chosen to frequent had such an adversion to birders that he had been thundering up and down all day in a high-powered muck-spreader, splattering them with cow dung!

   His words landed like a bomb, and my ears thundered with noise.

3. To (make something) move very fast (with loud noise).

   Usage

   • ergative

   Examples

   Senseless years thunder by / Millions are willing to give their lives for you / Does nothing live on?

4. To say (something) with a loud, threatening voice.

   Usage

   • Intransitive
   • Transitive

   Examples

   "Get back to work at once!", he thundered.

5. To produce something with incredible power.

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   Just as it appeared Arsenal had taken the sting out of the tie, Johnson produced a moment of outrageous quality, thundering a bullet of a left foot shot out of the blue and into the top left-hand corner of Wojciech Szczesny's net with the Pole grasping at thin air.

Noun

1. a deep prolonged loud noise

   Synonyms

   boomroarroaring

   Broader terms

   noise

2. a booming or crashing noise caused by air expanding along the path of a bolt of lightning

   Broader terms

   noise

3. street names for heroin

   Synonyms

   big Hhell dustnose dropssmackskagscag

   Broader terms

   heroindiacetylmorphine

Verb

1. move fast, noisily, and heavily

   Broader terms

   move

   Examples

   The bus thundered down the road

2. utter words loudly and forcefully

   Synonyms

   roar

   Broader terms

   shout

   Examples

   ‘Get out of here,’ he roared

3. be the case that thunder is being heard

   Synonyms

   boom

   Broader terms

   sound

   Examples

   Whenever it thunders, my dog crawls under the bed

4. to make or produce a loud noise

   Broader terms

   roarhowl

   Examples

   The river thundered below

   The engine roared as the driver pushed the car to full throttle