Inherited fromMiddle Englishfulminaten, borrowed fromLatinfulminātus,perfectpassiveparticiple offulminō(“to lighten, hurl or strike with lightning”) (see-ate(verb-forming suffix)), fromfulmen(“lightning which strikes and sets on fire, thunderbolt”), from earlier*fulgmen,*fulgimen, fromfulgeō,fulgō(“flash, lighten”).Doublet offulmine. More atfulgent.
fulminate (third-person singular simple presentfulminates,present participlefulminating,simple past and past participlefulminated)
- (intransitive, figuratively) To make averbalattack.
1855, William Neilson,Mesmerism in its relation to health and disease, page46:In short, the criticism which the great lexicographerfulminated against an unfortunate author, seems to have been adopted by the profession as applicable to everything under the sun[…]
2017 February 15, Peter Beinart, “American Institutions Are Fighting Back Against Trump”, inThe Atlantic[1]:To be sure, Trump hasfulminated on Twitter against the judges who rebuffed him. But his tirades have earned him a reprimand––if a brief, vague one––from his own Supreme Court nominee.
- (transitive, figuratively) To issue as adenunciation.
1842,Thomas De Quincey, “Cicero”, inBlackwood's Edinburgh Magazine:Theyfulminated the most hostile of all decrees.
2007 January 21,David Brooks, “Mr. Chips Goes to Congress”, inThe New York Times[2],→ISSN:While they were the opposition, Democratsfulminated that the Republicans were so deep in the pockets of Big Pharma that they wouldn’t even let the government negotiate lower drug prices.
- (intransitive) Tothunder or make a loud noise.
- (transitive, now rare) To strike withlightning; to cause toexplode.
2009,Thomas Pynchon,Inherent Vice, Vintage, published2010, page235:the present owners couldn't afford the electric bills anymore, several amateur gaffers, sad to say, having already beenfulminated trying to bootleg power in off the municipal lines.
- (Can weverify(+) this sense?)(figurative) to act as lightning, appearing quickly and destructively
To issue as a denunciation
Fromfulminic acid +-ate(“salt or ester”).
fulminate (pluralfulminates)
- (chemistry) Anysalt orester offulminic acid, mostlyexplosive.
1977,Alistair Horne,A Savage War of Peace, New York: Review Books, published2006, page193:On 19 February a jubilant Bigeard announced that his 3rd R.P.C. had seized eighty-seven bombs, seventy kilos of explosive, 5,120fulminate of mercury detonators, 309 electric detonators, etc.
Any salt or ester of fulminic acid
fulminate m (pluralfulminates)
- fulminate
fulminate
- inflection offulminare:
- second-personpluralpresentindicative
- second-personpluralimperative
fulminate f pl
- feminineplural offulminato
fulmināte
- vocativemasculinesingular offulminātus
fulminate
- second-personsingularvoseoimperative offulminar combined withte
