thunderstone
Americannoun
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any of various stones or fossils formerly thought to be fallen thunderbolts.
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Archaic. a thunderbolt or flash of lightning.
noun
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a long tapering stone, fossil, or similar object, formerly thought to be a thunderbolt
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an archaic word for thunderbolt
Etymology
Origin of thunderstone
First recorded in 1590–1600; thunder ( def. ) + stone ( def. )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In Notes and Queries, 2-8-92, a writer says that he had a "thunderstone," which he had brought from Jamaica.
From The Book of the Damned by Charles Fort
He describes the "thunderstone" as an "agglomeration of brick, soot, unburned coal, and cinder."
From The Book of the Damned by Charles Fort
I knew not how time passed till the thunderstone had struck the temple, and a pain stung me through the heart.
From Appearances Being Notes of Travel by G. Lowes (Goldsworthy Lowes) Dickinson
The "thunderstone" is usually "a beautifully polished, wedge-shaped piece of greenstone," says a writer in the Cornhill Magazine, 50-517.
From The Book of the Damned by Charles Fort
The thunderstone, or thunderbolt, was supposed to have no power of harming any one who was asleep, or who wore laurel leaves.
From Bussy D'Ambois and The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois by Frederick S. Boas
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
