thunderclap

From thunder +‎ clap.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈθʌndɚˌklæp/

• Audio (US):

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thunderclap (plural thunderclaps)

1. A sudden, loud thunder caused by a nearby lightning strike; a shock of thunder, as opposed to a reverberating rumble.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Thunderclaps that make them quake.

   • 1600 (date written), [John Marston], Iacke Drums Entertainment: Or The Comedie of Pasquill and Katherine. […], London: […] [Thomas Creede] for Richard Oliue [i.e., Oliff], […], published 1601, →OCLC, Act II, signature D2, verso:

     Ile home, and ſtarue, this croſſe, this peeuiſh hap, / Strikes dead my ſpirits like a thunderclap.

   • 1685, John Dryden, Threnodia Augustalis:

     When suddenly the thunderclap was heard.

2. (figurative) Something that makes a big, dramatic impact.
   • 2022 October 10, Jenna Scherer, “House Of The Dragon drops its best episode yet”, in AV Club‎^[1]:

     A 21-Valyrian steel dagger salute to Paddy Considine, who makes his exit from House Of The Dragon this week with a thunderclap of a performance. “The Lord of the Tides” is the swan song for his King Viserys I Targaryen, a well-intentioned but indecisive man who waited until the very last day of his life to flex his royal might.

3. (literature) Synonym of thunder word.
   • 2012, Kenneth Silverman, Begin Again: A Biography of John Cage, page 292:

     […] the thunderclaps, and advised Cage on their meaning. Cage considered composing new star-map music, in which microphones attached to the throats of the chorus members would make their singing of Joyce's verbal thunderclaps sound like […]

• thunderclap headache

• thunderbolt
• thunderous

thunderclap (third-person singular simple present thunderclaps, present participle thunderclapping, simple past and past participle thunderclapped)

1. (intransitive) To produce a loud burst of sound like a thunderclap.
   • 2000, Arelo C. Sederberg, Zora, page 309:

     It struck just before dark, a massive black geyser of oil and gas that thunderclapped from the well, soaring a hundred feet into the air and then even higher, […]

   • 2003, Kathryn Shay, Against the Odds, page 118:

     So many sensations — the feel of his strong fingers gripping her shoulders, his heart thunderclapping in his chest, his legs and hips aligned with hers, as if the two of them had been fashioned out of the same block of clay.

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• rumble