d.1763. Byrom, Critical Remarks [Chalmers, Eng. Poets, xv. 236. 1]. Small as you will, if 'twas a bumper, Centum for one would be a thumper.
1774. Goldsmith, Retaliation. One fault he had and that one was a thumper.
1798. O'Keefe, Fontainebleau, iii. 1. You've run up a thumping bill.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas [Routledge], 358. Antonia has not a thumping fortune to bring with her.
1902. Pall Mall Gaz., 24 Jan., i. 3. A thumping majority.
2. (showmens').—In pl. = dominoes.
Thumpkin, subs. (thieves').—A
barn filled with hay.
Thunder! intj. (common).—A
mild oath: also thunderation!
thunder-and-lightning!
and Thunder-and-Turf!
By thunder = By God, and the
Devil, and what comes between.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, 'The Ingoldsby Penance.' Now Thunder and turf, Pope Gregory said.
1847. Robb, Squatter Life. What in thunder makes you take on so?
18[?]. Bret Harte, Chiquita. An' twelve hundred dollars of hog's-flesh afloat, and a drifting to thunder.
1887. Henley, Hospital Outlines. It looked like fighting, And they meant it too, by thunder.
1896. Lillard, Poker Stories, 95. The thunder, you say . . . some of you must remind the Sheriff to shoot him on sight.
To collar (or steal) one's thunder, verb. phr. (common).—See quot.
c.1709. Dennis [Walsh, Lit. Curios, 1052. John Dennis, critic and dramatist . . . was the inventor of a new species of stage thunder which was used for the first time in a play of his own . . . coldly received and speedily withdrawn. Shortly afterwards (so Spence tells us), he heard his own thunder made use of. 'Damn them!' he cried, 'they will not let my play run, but they steal my thunder! So also Pope: see Dunciad, ii. 223, Note].
Thunderbomb (H.M.S.), subs.
phr. (nautical).—An imaginary
ship of enormous dimensions.
18[?]. Buckstone, Billy Taylor. Straightway made her first lieutenant Of the gallant Thunderbomb.
Thunderer (The), subs. phr.
(journalists').—The Times newspaper.
1874. Siliad, 201. If a small cloud doth in the East appear, Then speaks the Thunderer, and all men hear.
Thundering, adj. (common).—A
strong intensive: great, large,
tremendous, etc.
1597. Hall, Satires, i. Graced with huff-cap terms and thundering threats. [Possibly a connecting link between the two senses.]
d.1655. Adams, Works, 11. 420. He goes a thundering pace that you would not think it possible to overtake him.
1678. Cotton, Virgil Travestie, (1770), 59. And in they brought a thundering meal.
d.1704. Brown, Works, i. 249. I was drawing a thundering fish out of the water.
d.1743. Hervey, Memoirs Court of George II. [Mention is made of Queen Caroline's indignation at the infliction of] a thundering long sermon.
1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 36. No sooner he the priest did spy, But up he brought a thundering lie.
1840. Crockett, Tour down East, 61. I was told that Faneuil Hall was called the 'cradle of liberty.' I reckon old King George thought they were thundering fine children that were rocked in it.
1844. Major Jones's Courtship, 82. If a chap only comes from the North, and has got a crop of hair and whiskers, and a coat different from everybody else, and a thunderin' great big gold chain . . . he's the poplerest man among the ladies.
1848. Lowell, Biglow Papers, 1. i. Haint they cut a thunderin' swarth?
