Pa. t. and pa. pple. 5–6 fulminat, 6–8 (pa. pple.) fulminate. [f. L. fulmināt- ppl. stem of fulmināre to lighten, strike with lightning, f. fulmen lightning.]
I. In physical senses.
1. intr. To thunder and lighten. rare.
1610. J. Davies, Wits Pilgrim, I iv b. With a firy Wreathe bind thou my Brow That mak’st the Muse in Flames to fulminate.
1656. S. Holland, Don Zara (1719), 60. It tonitruated horribly, fulminating promiscuously from all parts of the troubled Hemisphere. [Meant for ludicrous bombast.]
1742. Young, Nt. Th., IX. 490. Loud … Ætnas fulminate in love to man.
2. To issue as a thunderbolt.
1861. J. G. Sheppard, Fall Rome, iv. 164. It was on the latter body that the bolt of Roman vengeance first fell, and it was as sudden and as terrible in its effects as if it had really fulminated from the throne of Capitolian Jove.
† 3. Metallurgy. Of gold: To become suddenly bright and uniform in color. Obs.
1727. P. Shaw, trans. Boerhaave’s Chem. (1741), I. 71, note. Till … the gold have fulminated, as the refiners call it.
† 4. trans. To strike with lightning. Obs. rare.
1666. Sancroft, Lex Ignea, 40. Shall our Mountain … be fulminated, and thunder-strook.
5. To flash forth like lightning.
1630. Randolph, Panegyr. to Shirley’s Gratef. Serv., A iij. I cannot fulminate or tonitruate words … nor make a iusiurand, that [etc.].
1863. Mrs. C. Clarke, Shaks. Char., ii. 46. We are apt to shrink from the wit of Beatrice; we bask in that of Rosalind. The one is fulminated in brilliant coruscations, occasionally heedless whom they wound; the other shines with gentle, genial radiance.
6. ? † a. trans. To cause to explode with sudden loud report (obs.). b. intr. To explode with a loud report, detonate, go off.
1667. Henshaw, in Sprat, Hist. R. Soc., 275. If you fulminate it [salt-petre] in a Crucible.
1799. G. Smith, Laboratory, I. 235–6. Put them together into an earthen pan, on which lay some live charcoal, and the nitre and tartar will soon begin to fulminate.
1853. W. Gregory, Inorg. Chem. (ed. 4), 398. When precipitated oxide of siler is acted on by ammonia, a dark powder is formed, which fulminates violently when heated, or by friction.
II. fig.
[Originaliy a rendering of med.L. fulminare, the technical term for the formal issuing of condemnations or censures by the pope or other ecclesiastical authority; afterwards used with wider application and with reference to the literal sense.]
7. trans. To ‘thunder forth’; to utter or publish (a formal condemnation or censure) upon a person.
c. 1450. Henryson, Tale of Dog, 80. The Arbiteris … The sentence gaif, and proces fulminat.
1532–3. Act 24 Hen. VIII., c. 12 § 2. Notwithstandynge … it should happen any Excommengement … to be fulminate, promulged, declared, or put in Execucion.
1560. Rolland, The Court of Venus, III. 17. The mater was to be fulminat.
1682. News fr. France, 37. The Pope sent … a Bull of Excommunication, which he required him … to fulminate in his Name against all the Assembly.
1726. Ayliffe, Parergon, 157. All Ecclesiastical Persons or Persons, to whom an Ordinary Jurisdiction is given either by Law, Custom, Canon, or Privilege, may fulminate these Church-Censures.
1750. Warburton, Doctr. Grace, II. v. Wks. (1811), VIII. 339. In reviewing these JUDGMENTS (though fulminated with the air of one who had the divine Vengeance at his disposal) I find some difference between his and those inflicted by the Apostles.
1816. J. Scott, Vis. Paris (ed. 5), Preface, xxvii. The maledictions he [Napoleon] fulminated against our Island, in the noon-tide of his power!
1832. trans. Sismondi’s Ital. Rep., xii. 272. The pope fulminated a bull against him … for having hanged an archbishop.
1871. Napheys, Prev. & Cure Dis., I. iii. 112. Kings have fulminated their decrees against it.
8. To strike with the ‘thunderbolts’ of ecclesiastical censure; hence gen. to denounce in scathing terms, condemn vehemently.
1687. Dryden, Hind & P., II. 582.
| For all of ancient that you had before, | |
| (I mean what is not borrow’d from our store) | |
| Was Errour fulminated o’er and o’er. |
1688. T. Browne, Reasons Bays Changing Relig., 15. I fulminated Johnsons affected Style.
1760. Hurd, in Lett. late eminent Prelate (1809), 311. Burnet’s Exposition I find was fulminate; and, had the Convocation been as busy, twenty years ago, as Dr. Atterbury would have it, I should have been in pain for the Divine Legation.
1773. Burke, Sp. Prot. Diss. Bill, Wks. X. 37. I would have the Laws rise in all their majesty of terrours, to fulminate such vain and impious wretches.
1806. W. Taylor, in Ann. Rev., IV. 263/1. She [the catholic church] always prefers the orthodox upstart to the heathen heir, and crowns without hesitation a Constantine or a Pepin, or fulminates without hesitation a Julian or an Elizabeth, whatever be the character of their civil claims to sovereignty.
9. intr. Of the pope, etc.: To issue censures or condemnations (against); gen. to ‘thunder,’ inveigh violently against.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, III. xxx. (1647), 162. Before his time the Imperiall majesty … was never fulminated against with excommunication.
1660. R. Coke, Power & Subj., 215. Pope Paul … after he had fulminated so dreadfully against him, proposed him for an Example to be imitated.
1768. Boswell, Corsica, ii. (ed. 2), 65. The Vatican from whence the holy father used … to fulminate with serious effect against the greatest powers in Europe.
1792. Bar. Munchausen’s Trav., xxxiv. 150. I … seized the Speaker, who was fulminating against the Aristocrats.
1849. Sir J. Stephen, Eccl. Biog. (1850), I. 466. Pulpits fulminated, presses groaned.
1852. Gladstone, Glean. (1879), IV. xxii. 157. If they do pass it, they will incur the penalty of excommunication; which it will be the duty of the Pope himself to fulminate against them.
Hence Fulminating vbl. sb., the action of the vb.
1693. W. Salmon, Bates’ Dispens. (1715), 537/1. You need not fear its fulminating in the drying.
