thundering

Pluralthunderings

1. 1
   adjective

   Producing a noise, or an effect, like that of thunder.

   The thundering roar of the falls drowned out every voice on the bridge.

   The boxer landed a thundering right hook in the third round.

   Similarthunderous, deafening, booming, resounding, roaring

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of thunder.

   A freight train came thundering through the crossing just after midnight.

   The coach stood on the sideline, thundering orders at his players.

   Note

   One -ing form carries every use of the verb: the weather's own, with an empty it as subject (it was thundering all night), a voice raised in threat (thundering orders), and fast, noisy movement. That last one sits most naturally after a verb of motion like come, as when John Cleland in 1749 has them come thundering up-stairs.

3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A loud, percussive sound resembling thunder.

   The thundering of hooves grew louder as the herd crossed the valley.

   The thunderings of the surf against the sea wall kept us awake.

   Similarrumbling, pounding, drumming, roar, booming

   Note

   This noun has its own line of descent: Old English þunring, which meant both "thundering" and "thunder" itself. The plural suits a sound that rolls on and on, as in the thunderings of the great cataract in Bela Bates Edwards's Memoir of the Rev. Elias Cornelius (1833). A phrase with of names what is making the noise: the thundering of hooves, of surf.

4. 4
   adjective

   Relating to thunder, or occurring together with thunder.

   The hikers turned back as the skies above the ridge grew dark and thundering.

   A thundering summer storm flooded the streets within minutes.

   Similarthundery, stormy

5. 5
   adjectivecolloquial

   Very great or extraordinary in amount or degree.

   His mistake had a thundering lot to do with how the project fell apart.

   Missing the last ferry turned out to be a thundering stroke of luck.

   Similartremendous, huge, great, enormous

   Note

   Here the word works as an intensifier, and nothing in it makes a sound. It stands before a noun of amount or degree, as in a thundering lot: in G. K. Chesterton's The Secret of Father Brown (1927), Father Brown says something had a thundering lot to do with the story. The tone is conversational; in formal writing, a great deal does the same job.

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