thunderstrike
Americanverb (used with object)
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Archaic. to strike with a thunderbolt.
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to astonish; dumfound.
Etymology
Origin of thunderstrike
1605–15; probably back formation from earlier thunderstricken (adj.); see thunder, strike
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.
See Examples For:
Meet Flora, travel with her, play the hypocrite, with smiles on my lips and hell in my heart,--or thunderstrike her at once with the truth;--what was I to do?
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 02, No. 10, August, 1858 by Various
This very morning my official chief, Tapping with friendly forefinger this button, Levelled me like a thunderstricken elm Flat upon the Colonial Office floor.
From The Admirable Bashville or, Constancy Unrewarded by Bernard Shaw
They stood in the doorway, as much astonished and thunderstricken as I was, glaring at me, so it seemed to me, with that soft, bright-brown lock of hair curling and clinging round my finger.
From The Doctor's Dilemma by Hesba Stretton
It was now time for the baronet to feel thunderstricken.
From Willy Reilly The Works of William Carleton, Volume One by William Carleton
I had hardly heard them when Millière fell as if thunderstricken.
From History of the Commune of 1871 by P. Lissagary
"You shall never have another word in mine!" said the thunderstricken Julia to herself.
From The Wit and Humor of America, Volume IX (of X) by Marshall Pinckney Wilder
As if thunderstruck, Leontes becomes irredeemably convinced that Polixenes’ acquiescence reveals an adulterous relationship between the two.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
More than 90 million Americans watched, thunderstruck, as TV helicopters provided live shots of the action.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 12, 2024
And I’m really thunderstruck at the number of people who are shocked, shocked.
From Slate ● May 7, 2022
But he was "thunderstruck" when he heard the library faced closure.
From BBC ● Nov. 29, 2021
My sister and I stood equally thunderstruck a couple of feet away from her, clinging to one another in fear, wondering what was happening to our mother.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
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.
