[f. as prec. + -ING2.] That thunders, in various senses.
1. lit. Causing or sending forth thunder; † of or characterized by thunder, thundery (obs.).
1530. Palsgr., 281/1. Thundring, altitonant.
1573. Tusser, Husb., Author’s Belief, vii. That sendeth thundring claps, like terrours out of hell.
1621. in Foster, Eng. Factories Ind. (1906), 242. We came to anchor…, and in a flat calme began to make thundering weather.
1751. J. Bartram, Observ. Trav. Pennsylv., etc. 56. A rainy thundering warm day.
1856. Masson, Ess., vi. 179. [He] resumed his place in the public eye as the thundering Jove of the Opposition.
b. Thundering Legion: see quots.
1650. Baxter, Saints’ R., II. vi. § 6 (1651), 264. Hence the Christian soldiers in their Army were called, the Thundering Legion.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., Thundering Legion, Legio Fulminans, was a legion in the Roman army, consisting of Christian soldiers, who in the expedition of the emperor Marcus Aurelius against the Sarmatæ, Quadi, and Marcomanni, saved the whole army, then ready to perish of thirst, by procuring, with their prayers, a very plentiful shower thereon; and, at the same time, a furious hail, mixed with lightening and thunderbolts, on the enemy…: though some say, that the legion those Christians were of, was called the thundering legion before.
1831–3. E. Burton, Eccl. Hist., xix. (1845), 413. One legion obtained the name of the thundering legion, because the Christian soldiers, of which it was composed, knelt down in the presence of the enemy, which was followed not only by a seasonable supply of rain, but by a storm of thunder and hail, to the great discomfiture of their opponents.
1835. Penny Cycl., III. 105/1. Some unlucky legendist, not knowing that the 12th or Thundering Legion, which was engaged in this affair, had its name before it happened, took occasion to call it a Christian Legion, and to attribute the miraculous storm to the efficacy of its prayers.
2. transf. Making a noise like thunder, sounding very loudly; of sound, As loud as thunder.
† Thundering gold, see note s.v. FULMINATING ppl. a.1
1576. Gascoigne, Spoyle of Antwerpe, B ij. The Castle had all this while, played at the Towne and trenches, with thundring shot.
1687. Dryden, Ode St. Cecilia’s Day, iii. The double double, double beat Of the thundring Drum.
1694. Salmon, Bate’s Dispens. (1713), 317/1. Aurum Fulminans: Lightning or Thundering Gold.
c. 1764. Gray, Owen, 23. There the thund’ring strokes begin.
1845. J. Coulter, Adv. Pacific, iii. 25. A long, deep, regular sea, with a fine thundering crest on the top of the wave.
1871. L. Stephen, Playgr. Eur., xii. (1894), 283. The thundering fall of the Handeck becomes [in winter] a gentle thread of pure water.
3. fig. in reference to terrible invective, threatening, etc., or to powerful eloquence; sometimes to bombastic or inflated language.
1543. Grafton, Contn. of Harding, 463. The duke of Burgoyne … wrote sharpe letters of thretenyng … whose fyrye and thundryng wordes [etc.].
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 357. To resist the … outragious rule of thundering Tyraunts.
a. 1674. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., XIII. § 15. Thundering Letters came from the Parliament, with great menaces what they would do.
1727. Pope, Shaks. Wks., Pref. I. 5. The most pompous Rhymes, and thundering Versification.
a. 1797. Wilkes, in J. Almon, Mem. (1805), V. 35. I hear of a thundering memorial against this country from Spain.
1883. J. Parker, Apost. Life, II. 16. The thundering eloquence.
4. Very energetic or forcible, violent; hence as a mere intensive: Very great or big, excessive, immense, ‘tremendous,’ ‘terrific.’ colloq. or slang.
1618. T. Adams, Love’s Copy, Wks. 1862, II. 420. He goes a thundering, pace, that you would not think it possible to overtake him.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., X. 476. They all three left mee in a thundering rage.
1681. Otway, Soldier’s Fort., I. i. I warrant him a thundering Rogue.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Aristænetus’ Epist., I. Wks. 1720, I, 249. I was drawing a thundring Fish out of the Water, so very large, that it made my Rod crack again.
1851. Borrow, Lavengro, xcix. What a thundering old fool you are!
1900. Barrie, Tommy & Grizel, v. Such a thundering lie.
b. as adv. Excessively, immensely, ‘tremendously.’ colloq. or slang.
[1839.
1852. Dickens, Bleak Ho., xxi. I was a thundering bad son.
1887. Black, Sabina Zembra, 228. Don’t you think that a thundering good licking would knock the laziness out of him?
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer (1891), 261. A thundering soft thing it is, in a general way.
Hence Thunderingly adv., in a thundering manner; with a noise as of thunder; fig. violently, powerfully; with fierce denunciation; excessively (slang or colloq.).
1680. Honest Hodge & Ralph, 19. The Author makes it his main business to take the Charge off from the POPE as much as he can, the more thunderingly to Clap it upon the PHANATICK.
1759. H. Walpole, Lett. to Mann, 10 May. It is well if he concludes this [campaign] as thunderingly as he did the last.
1847. Vermont Chron., 19 May, 2/1. He recollected a preacher who one night preached so thunderingly against Slavery that a planter went home and could not sleep that night till he sent for a lawyer and emancipated all his slaves for fear he might die before morning and go to hell!
1885. C. Gibbon, Hard Knot, 11. xxxiii. 229. It’s thunderingly annoying.
