fulmination
(fʌlmɪˈneɪʃən)
[ad. L. fulminātiōn-em, n. of action f. fulmināre (see fulminate v.).]
1. The bursting forth of thunder and lightning. In quots. only fig.: cf. 4.
| 1623 Cockeram, Fulmination, thundring. 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. 126 Like wicked Outlawes despising the fulmination of divine Anger. 1868 Browning Ring & Bk. ix. 606 St. Paul..Deplored the check o' the puny presence, still Cheating his fulmination of its flash. 1869 Goulburn Purs. Holiness 96 He beats down with His fulminations the old idols of prejudice. |
2. The action of fulminating or detonating; loud explosion.
| 1667 Henshaw in Sprat Hist. R. Soc. 275 The Volatile part that was seperated from it in the fulmination. 1765 Hamilton in Phil. Trans. LV. 176 Mariotte..calls these bubbles [in boiling water] fulminations. 1794 J. Hutton Philos. Light, etc. 232 Another species of explosion, which has been termed fulmination. 1885 Syd. Soc. Lex., Fulmination, an explosion with noise, resulting from the sudden decomposition of a chemical substance. |
† 3. Metallurgy. (See fulminate v. 3.) Obs.
| 1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 271 Fulmination..is a metallicall gradation, with excoction to an absolute perfection in Cinerition, whose purity is declared by an effulgent splendor. |
4. The formal emission of an ecclesiastical condemnation or censure (see fulminate v. II). Subsequently with a more general sense: Violent denunciation or threatening; an instance of this, a terrific explosion of indignation.
| 1502 Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W. 1506) iv. viii. 191 For the twenty fulminacyons that they make at this day comenly. 1532–3 Act 24 Hen. VIII, c. 12 §3 The sayde fulminacions of any of the same interdictions. 1606 Crt. & Times Jas. I (1849) I. 63 Their protestation against the Pope's fulmination. 1726 Ayliffe Parergon 132 These Fulminations from the Vatican were turn'd into Ridicule. 1809 Knox & Jebb Corr. I. 556 Gross vice is not, in the first instance, to be encountered with menaces and fulminations. 1845 H. Rogers Ess. I. iii. 122 Awaiting the fulmination of the bull. 1858 Times 6 Aug. 11/2 His..generals were more strictly bound down by great fulminations never to attack without permission. 1861 Miss C. Fox Jrnls. II. 280 John Bright is great fun, always ready for a chat and a fulmination. |