arch. [Alteration of the earlier thunder-layt, -leit (q.v.) by substitution of light for leit. The earlier form occurs in some of the Chaucer MSS.] Light of thunder, lightning.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., I. met. iv. 7. (MS. Camb. I i. 3. 21). Ne the wey of thonderlyht [Add. MS. þonder lyȝt; MS. Camb. I i. 1. 38. thonder leit; ed. 1532 thonder leyte] þat is wont to smyten heye towres, ne shal not moeue þat man. Ibid. (c. 1386), Pars. T., ¶ 765 (Camb. MS.). After that he brente .v. ceteis with thundyr liȝth [v.rr. liȝt, lyht, lyght, lighte, Ellesm. leyt, Harl. layt].
1815. L. Hunt, Feast of Poets, etc. 149. What shall move his placid might? Not the headlong thunderlight.
1834. Ld. Houghton, Mem. Many Scenes (1844), 59. Under such a sky—Thus grave, thus streaked with thunderlight.
