fulminating, ppl. a.
(ˈfʌlmɪneɪtɪŋ)
[f. fulminate v. + -ing2.]
That fulminates.
1. a. Detonating, violently explosive.
fulminating gold, fulminating mercury, fulminating platinum, fulminating silver, various fulminates or salts of fulminic acid. fulminating pane (see quot. 1879). fulminating powder, formerly, a mixture of nitre, potash, and sulphur; now sometimes applied to other violently explosive powders, chiefly containing fulminate of mercury.
| 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. ii. v. 89 These afford no fulminating report. 1665 Hooke Microgr. 35 These I found to have quite lost all their fulminating or flying quality. 1691 Ray Creation i. (1704) 80 For fulminating Engines. 1695 Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth iv. (1723) 227 The Fulminating Damp will take Fire at a Candle. 1794 J. Hutton Philos. Light, etc. 210 This fulminating composition. 1804 T. G. Fessenden Terrible Tractoration 142 Sound Discord's jarring tocsin louder, Than Howard's fulminating powder. 1807 T. Thomson Chem. (ed. 3) II. 12 This powder is fulminating gold, which is composed of five parts of yellow oxide of gold and one part of ammonia. Ibid. 423 Mr. Howard..has given it the name of fulminating mercury. 1858 Greener Gunnery 22 Nothing can resist the exceeding intensity of the action of fulminating powder. 1879 Rossiter Dict. Sci. Terms, Fulminating pane, glass plate coated on each side with tin-foil, which, when electrified, can be discharged with a spark. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 146/2 Fulminating silver, even when moist, will explode by percussion. |
b. Producing a brilliant flash when ignited.
| 1676 Lister in Ray's Corr. (1848) 124 The fulminating powder, which the spikes of Muscus Lycopod. yield. |
2. fig. That thunders or hurls forth censures, denunciations, or the like; also, that is thundered forth.
| 1626 T. H[awkins] Caussin's Holy Crt. 127 Rome, from whence came all the fulminating thunders, and bloudy Edicts agaynst Christians. a 1693 Urquhart Rabelais iii. xii. 93 A powerful and fulminating Goddess. 1734 tr. Rollin's Anc. Hist. (1827) II. ii. 91 This fulminating decree. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. 16 All things in this his fulminating bull are not of so innoxious a tendency. a 1839 Praed Poems (1864) II. 273 Hits Sent slyly out by little wits, A fulminating breed. |
3. Path. Of a disease: coming on suddenly with intense severity; foudroyant; = fulminant a. 2.
| 1875 R. B. Carter Pract. Treat. Dis. Eye xi. 413 The ‘fulminating’ form [of glaucoma] differs from the acute only in the extreme degree of tension, [etc.]. 1900 in Dorland Med. Dict. 1908 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 22 Aug. 477/1 Two cases of fulminating pyorrhœa alveolaris specifica. 1910 Practitioner Feb. 204 Fulminating cases of infection with virulent organisms. 1964 M. Hynes Med. Bacteriol. (ed. 8) x. 135 A fulminating gastro⁓enteritis which is commonly fatal. 1970 R. M. Goodman Genetic Disorders Man xvii. 871/2 The disease [sc. galactosemia] may be fulminating and result in early death. |