Forms: see the sb.; also 3 þondri, 4 thonyre; 5 pa. t. thunret. [OE. þunrian, in 13th c. þondren, f. þunor, THUNDER sb.; cf. Du. donderen, LG. dönnern, OHG. donarôn, MHG. donren, MG. dunren, Ger. donnern; Norw. dial. tora; Sw. dundra, Da. tordne, dundre (from LG.).]
1. intr. a. Impersonally: it thunders, thunder sounds, there is thunder.
c. 888. K. Ælfred, Boeth., xxxix. § 3. Hit hwilum þunrað, hwilum na ne onginð.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., John xii. 29. Seo menio … þæt ʓehyrde sædon þæt hyt þunrode.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 198/37. Þat weder … bi-gan to chaungie … hit bi-gan to þondri and hauli.
a. 1375. Joseph Arim., 235. Hit þester bi-gon and þonderde swiþe.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 3691. Thunret full throly; thrappit the windes.
1526. Tindale, John xii. 29. Then sayde the people that stode by and herde, it thoundreth.
1616. Surfl. & Markham, Country Farme, 25. If in Summer it lighten when it thundreth not.
1725. Watts, Logic, I. II. § 4. Thunder seldom comes without Lightning: but it thunder’d Yesterday; therefore probably it lightned also.
1890. Doyle, White Company, xv. I can well remember that in Navarre one day it thundered on the left out of a cloudless sky.
b. With subject (the or a deity, heaven, the clouds, the sky, etc.): To cause or give forth thunder; to sound with thunder.
a. 1000. Ags. Ps. (Th.) xxvii[i]. 3. He is mæʓen-þrymmes God, and he þunrað ofer maneʓum wæterum.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter xvi[i]. 14 [13]. And laverd thonered fra heuen.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, Cant., 502. In heuyns he sall thonyre.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. lxxvi[i]. 17. Ye cloudes thondered, and thy arowes wente abrode.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 20. Thee skyes doo thunder.
1607. Shaks., Cor., III. i. 257. He would not flatter … Ioue, for ’s power to Thunder.
1810. Southey, Thalaba, VII. xxii. Then darkness cover’d all, Earth shook, Heaven thunder’d.
c. trans. (with various objects): To deal out or inflict by thunder; to strike down by thunder; to utter in thunder, arch. rare.
1579. Gosson, Sch. Abuse (Arb.), 47. Beeing the Sonnes of Iupiter, they … thunder out plagues to the proude in heart.
1608. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. IV. Schisme, 1193. The Heav’nly Powrs, Who thunder-down the high-aspiring Towrs.
a. 1625. James. I., Ps. xxix., in Farr, S. P. Jas. I. (1848), 4. God doth thunder his uoyce.
2. transf. intr. To make a loud resounding noise like thunder; to sound very loudly; to roar. Sometimes connoting violent movement: To rush or fall with great noise and commotion.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., II. met. iv. 31 (Camb. MS.). Al thowgh the wynde trowblynge the see thondre with ouerthrowynges.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 1334. The great artillary began to thunder from either side.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 705. The Danes like a mighty storme thundring from out of the North-East.
1718. Pope, Iliad, II. 1017. His fiery coursers thunder o’er the plains.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, XIII. iv. A footman knocked, or rather thundered at the door.
1845. J. Coulter, Adv. Pacific, x. 124. A vast body of water passed down over a precipice about a hundred feet high, and thundered into the sea.
1855. Tennyson, Light Brigade, iii. Cannon in front of them Volley’d and thunder’d.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xxiv. 175. Avalanches thundered incessantly from the Aiguille Verte.
b. trans. (with various objects): To deal or inflict, drive or impel, sound or give forth, strike, attack, or bombard, put down or overwhelm, etc., with a loud noise or other action like thunder.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. vi. 43. They gan … To thunder blowes, and fiersly to assaile Each other. Ibid., III. x. 33. Forth the Boaster … begonne His stolen steed to thunder furiously.
1601. B. Jonson, Poetaster, IV. v. Thou anger’st vs,… we will thunder thee in peeces.
1638. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 108. The English merchants ships thundred out his health by 200 great shot.
1687. Rycaut, Hist. Turks, II. 322. The Town would be thundred with greater violence.
1759. W. Wilkie, Epigoniad, VI. 173. Learn to dread My vengeance thund’red on your wretched head.
1839. Bailey, Festus, xix. (1852), 304. Like to a foaming force, which thunders down the echo it creates.
1894. Hall Caine, Manxman, IV. xii. He pounded it [a drum], boomed it, thundered it.
3. fig. a. intr. To speak in the way of vehement threatening or reproof; to utter terrible menace or denunciation; to ‘fulminate’; to inveigh powerfully against; sometimes, to speak bombastically, or with powerful eloquence. Also simply, to speak in a very loud tone, shout loudly, vociferate.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, xvii. 15. Oure lord thonord, manaunsand pyne of hell til synful men.
1549. Coverdale, etc., Erasm. Par. Tim., 13. Thunder not at him with cruell wordes.
1575. Gascoigne, Making of Verse, in Steele Gl., etc. (Arb.), 31. It is not inough … to thunder in Rym, Ram, Ruff, by letter (quoth my master Chaucer).
1617. Moryson, Itin., I. 142. The Hoste so thundred among us like the bragging souldier.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, VI. 823. The queen of Furies … thund’ring in their ears.
1722. De Foe, Plague (1754), 33. The Ministers … thundered against these, and other wicked Practices.
1863. W. Phillips, Speeches, i. 9. James Otis thundered in this hall.
b. trans. To utter or publish in the way of terrible threatening, denunciation, or invective; also simply, to utter loudly, shout out, roar.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 287. Cursyngis purchased of þe pope and oþere felle sensuris þondured ouere til Englond.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Matt. xii. 74. Do not thunder sore threatenings.
c. 1590. Marlowe, Faust., vi. 20. Fearful echoes thunder in mine ears, ‘Faustus, thou art damned!’
1592. Greene, Groat’s W. Wit (1617), 27. The twelue labours of Hercules haue I terribly thundered on the Stage.
1604. Rowlands, Looke to It, 43. Thunder out Oathes, such as in Hell are bred.
1681. T. Flatman, Heraclitus Ridens, No. 31 (1713), I. 200. Adieu, ye Whigs, Poor Protestant Pigs, The Tories now will thunder us.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time (1766), I. 274. Censures would have been thundered at Rome against all that should take any such test.
1839. Thackeray, Fatal Boots, March. He thundered out so much of his abuse of me,… that the boys roared with laughter.
1887. Bowen, Virg. Æneid, I. 747. Tyrians thunder applause.
c. To hurl or launch vehement threats or invectives against; to denounce violently; also, to drive or put down by denunciation. Now rare or Obs.
1677. W. Hughes, Man of Sin, II. vi. 103. S. Becket … thunders from off the Earth, and down as low as Hell, vast numbers of Clerks, Bishops, and Nobles.
1694. Crowne, Married Beau, V. 62. Men thunder one another.
a. 1720. Sewel, Hist. Quakers (1795), I. IV. 331. If he had … thundered down deceit.
