adj. (common).—A strong intensive: great, large, tremendous, etc.
1597. JOSEPH HALL, Satires, i. Graced with huff-cap terms and THUNDRING threats. [Possibly a connecting link between the two senses.]
d. 1655. T. ADAMS, Works, II. 420. He goes a THUNDERING pace that you would not think it possible to overtake him.
1678. COTTON, Scarronides, or, Virgil Travestie, (1770), 59. And in they brought a THUND’RING meal.
d. 1704. T. BROWN, Works, i. 249. I was drawing a THUNDERING fish out of the water.
d. 1743. HERVEY, Memoirs of the Reign of George the Second. [Mention is made of Queen Caroline’s indignation at the infliction of] a THUNDERING long sermon.
1772. BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 36.
| No sooner he the priest did spy, | |
| But up he brought a THUNDERING lie. |
1835. CROCKETT, Tour to the North and Down East, 61. General Davis informed me this [Faneuil Hall] … was called the ‘cradle of liberty.’ I reckon old King George thought they were THUNDERING fine children that were rocked in it.
1844. W. T. THOMPSON, Major Jones’s Courtship, 82. If a chap only cums from the North,… and is got a crap of hair and whiskers … and a cote different from everybody else, and a THUNDERIN grate big gold chain … he’s the poplerest man mong the ladys.
1848. J. R. LOWELL, The Biglow Papers, I. i. Haint they cut a THUNDERIN’ swarth?
1883. GREENWOOD, Tag, Rag, & Co., ‘From London to York.’ He took me into his confidence, with the professed object, as he himself declared, of proving to me ‘what a THUNDERING fool’ he was and ever had been.’
1888. BOLDREWOOD, The Squatter’s Dream, iii. 24. If I had had my way, I’d have burned down the THUNDERING old place long ago.
