1. thunderbolt - Noun
2. Thunderbolt - Proper noun
A shaft of lightning; a brilliant stream of electricity passing from one part of the heavens to another, or from the clouds to the earth.
Something resembling lightning in suddenness and effectiveness.
Vehement threatening or censure; especially, ecclesiastical denunciation; fulmination.
A belemnite, or thunderstone.
Source: Webster's dictionaryI entered literary life as a meteor, and I shall leave it like a thunderbolt. Guy de Maupassant
He clasps the crag with crooked hands Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls. Alfred, Lord Tennyson
My dreams are a stupid refuge, like an umbrella against a thunderbolt. Fernando Pessoa
When struck by a thunderbolt it is unnecessary to consult the Book of Dates as to the precise meaning of the omen. Ernest Bramah
He that pryeth into the clouds, may be struck with a thunderbolt. Dutch Proverb
He that pries into the clouds may be struck with a thunderbolt. American Proverb