thunderbolt

noun

1. A flash of lightning accompanied by a crash of thunder.

   “Our quiuering Lances ſhaking in the aire, / And bullets like Ioues dreadfull Thunderbolts, / Enrolde in flames and fiery ſmoldering miſtes, / Shall threat the Gods more than Cyclopian warres, […]”

   “And the sword that had visited Earth from so far away smote like the falling of thunderbolts [...] and the runes in Alveric’s far-travelled sword exulted, and roared at the elf-knight; until in the dark of the wood, amongst branches severed from disenchanted trees, with a blow like that of a thunderbolt riving an oak-tree, Alveric slew him.”

   “He describes the operation thus: "The heavy ram employed to impart the finishing strokes, hoisted up with double purchase and snail's pace to the summit of the Piling Engine, and then falling down like a thunderbolt on the head of the devoted timber, driving it perhaps a single half inch in to the stratum below, is well calculated to put to the test the virtue of patience, while it illustrates the old adage of—slow and sure."”

2. (figuratively)An event that is terrible, horrific or unexpected.

   “News of the actress’s death came as a thunderbolt to her fans.”

   “the Scipios' worth, those thunderbolts of war”

   “A greater wreck, a deeper fall, / A shock to one—a thunderbolt to all.”

3. Vehement threatening or censure; especially, ecclesiastical denunciation; fulmination.

   “a thunder-bolt of warre Striking all Nations”

4. A very powerful shot.

   “Substitute Niko Kranjcar's injury-time thunderbolt gave Tottenham a dramatic win over Bolton.”

5. A belemnite, or thunderstone.
6. A charge in the form of two joined bundles with four rays of lightning emerging from them, resembling the thunderbolt of Jupiter.
7. A daring or irresistible hero.

verb

1. (rare, transitive)To strike with a thunderbolt.
2. (rare)To move swiftly and violently.

name

1. A computer interface standard for connecting devices, combining PCI Express, DisplayPort and DC power in one connector.