/thun"deuhr bohlt'/ , n.
1. a flash of lightning with the accompanying thunder.
2. an imaginary bolt or dart conceived as the material destructive agent cast to earth in a flash of lightning: the thunderbolts of Jove.
3. something very destructive, terrible, severe, sudden, or startling.
4. a person who acts with fury or with sudden and irresistible force.
[ 1400-50; late ME thondre bolte. See THUNDER, BOLT 1 ]