Noah Webster
Thunderbolt
THUN'DERBOLT, noun [thunder and bolt.]
1. A shaft of lightning; a brilliant stream of the electrical fluid, passing from one part of the heavens to another, and particularly from the clouds to the earth. Psalms 78:48.
2. Figuratively, a daring or irresistible hero; as the Scipios, those thunderbolts of war.
3. Fulmination; ecclesiastical denunciation.
He severely threatens such with the thunderbolt of excommunication.
4. In mineralogy, thunder-stone.