2. Something resembling lightning in suddenness and
effectiveness.
The Scipios' worth, those thunderbolts of war.
--Dryden.
3. Vehement threatening or censure; especially,
ecclesiastical denunciation; fulmination.
He severely threatens such with the thunderbolt of
excommunication. --Hakewill.
4. (Paleon.) A belemnite, or thunderstone.
{Thunderbolt beetle} (Zo["o]l.), a long-horned beetle
({Arhopalus fulminans}) whose larva bores in the trunk of
oak and chestnut trees. It is brownish and bluish-black,
with W-shaped whitish or silvery markings on the elytra.