arch. or dial. = THUNDERCLAP. a. lit.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 203. Þe feend, wyth a thunder-crakke, smole doun þe cherche to þe grounde.
1560. Pilkington, Expos. Aggeus (1562), 180. The cloudes burstes, & the thunder-cracke comes.
1622. S. Ward, Life of Faith in Death (1627), 79. Like fooles that feare the thunder cracke, and not the Bolt.
a. 1834. R. Surtees, Poems, in Taylor, Life, 317. The sky looks … black, And so we get a thunder-crack.
† b. transf. Obs.
1595. B. Barnes, Spir. Sonn., xxxii. Thrice puissant generall … Whose voyce itselfe is dreadfull thunder-cracke.
† c. fig. Obs.
1577. Vautrouillier, Luther on Ep. Gal., 25. The Pope … rappeth out his thundercrackes and cursings against the miserable and terrified in conscience.
1624. Middleton, Game at Chess, II. ii. 179. Those thunder-cracks of pride, Ushering a storm of malice.
1646. P. Bulkeley, Gospel Covt., I. 68. Had they not heard those thundercrackes?
