thunder

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The crashing or booming sound produced by rapidly expanding air along the path of the electrical discharge of lightning.
2. n. A sound that resembles or suggests thunder.
3. v. To produce thunder.
4. v. To produce sounds like thunder.
5. v. To utter loud, vociferous remarks or threats.
6. v. To express violently, commandingly, or angrily; roar.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The loud noise which follows a flash of lightning, due to the sudden disturbance of the air by a violent discharge of electricity through it. The character of the sound varies with the force and the distance of the discharge, the form, number, and relative arrangement of the clouds, and the nature of the surrounding country. The position of the observer relative to the path of the discharge has also an important influence on the character of the sound heard. If the observer is about equally distant from the two bodies between which the discharge takes place, the sound is short and sharp, while if his position is approximately in line with the path of discharge, so as to be considerably further from one body than the other, the sound is prolonged into a long roll, due to the difference of time which the sound takes to reach the ear from the different parts of the path. In hilly regions, and where there are many clouds in the neighborhood of the discharge, the sound is echoed and reechoed, causing a prolonged and more or less continuous roar. As sound travels at the rate of about 1,100 feet per second, and light at the rate of about 186,000 miles per second, the number of miles the observer is from the discharge will be nearly one fifth the number of seconds which elapse between seeing the flash and hearing the sound. Discharges between clouds high up in the atmosphere are not usually heard through so long distances as might be expected, owing to the diminution of the intensity of sounds in passing from rarer to denser media. Discharges from clouds near the earth's surface to the earth can be heard as far as any other sound of equal intensity.
2. n. The destructive agent in a thunder-storm; a discharge of lightning; a thunderbolt.
3. n. Any loud resounding noise: as, thunders of applause.
4. n. An awful or startling denunciation or threat.
5. n. As an exclamation, an abbreviation of by thunder, a mild oath. Compare thunderation.
6. To give forth thunder; resound with thunder; formerly, to lighten (and thunder): often used impersonally: as, it thundered yesterday.
7. To make a sound resembling thunder; make a loud noise, particularly a heavy sound of some continuance.
8. To utter loud denunciations or threats.
9. To emit with or as with the noise of thunder; utter with a loud and threatening voice; utter or issue by way of threat or denunciation.
10. To lay on with vehemence.

Wiktionary

1. n. The sound caused by the discharge of atmospheric electrical charge.
2. n. A sound resembling thunder.
3. n. A deep, rumbling noise.
4. v. intransitive To make a noise like thunder.
5. v. intransitive To talk with a loud, threatening voice.
6. v. transitive To say (something) with a loud, threatening voice.
7. v. To produce something with incredible power

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The sound which follows a flash of lightning; the report of a discharge of atmospheric electricity.
2. n. obsolete The discharge of electricity; a thunderbolt.
3. n. Any loud noise.
4. n. An alarming or statrling threat or denunciation.
5. v. To produce thunder; to sound, rattle, or roar, as a discharge of atmospheric electricity; -- often used impersonally.
6. v. Fig.: To make a loud noise; esp. a heavy sound, of some continuance.
7. v. To utter violent denunciation.
8. v. To emit with noise and terror; to utter vehemently; to publish, as a threat or denunciation.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a deep prolonged loud noise
2. n. street names for heroin
3. v. be the case that thunder is being heard
4. v. move fast, noisily, and heavily
5. v. to make or produce a loud noise
6. n. a booming or crashing noise caused by air expanding along the path of a bolt of lightning
7. v. utter words loudly and forcefully