fulminate

From Latin fulminātus, past participle of fulminō (“lighten, hurl or strike with lightning”), from fulmen (“lightning which strikes and sets on fire, thunderbolt”), from earlier *fulgmen, *fulgimen, from fulgeō, fulgō (“flash, lighten”). Doublet of fulmine. More at fulgent.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfʌlmɪneɪt/, /ˈfʊlmɪneɪt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfʌlmɪneɪt/, /ˈfʊlmɪneɪt/, /-əneɪt/

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fulminate (third-person singular simple present fulminates, present participle fulminating, simple past and past participle fulminated)

1. (intransitive, figuratively) To make a verbal attack.
2. (transitive, figuratively) To issue as a denunciation.
   • 1842, Thomas De Quincey, Cicero (published in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine)

     They fulminated the most hostile of all decrees.

   • 1855, William Neilson, Mesmerism in its relation to health and disease (page 46)

     In short, the criticism which the great lexicographer fulminated against an unfortunate author, seems to have been adopted by the profession as applicable to everything under the sun […]

3. (intransitive) To thunder or make a loud noise.
4. (transitive, now rare) To strike with lightning; to cause to explode.
   • 2009, Thomas Pynchon, Inherent Vice, Vintage 2010, p. 235:

     the present owners couldn't afford the electric bills anymore, several amateur gaffers, sad to say, having already been fulminated trying to bootleg power in off the municipal lines.

• (verbal attack): berate, condemn, criticize, denounce, denunciate, vilify

fulminate (plural fulminates)

1. (chemistry) Any salt or ester of fulminic acid, mostly explosive.
   • 1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York Review Books 2006, p. 193:

     On 19 February a jubilant Bigeard announced that his 3rd R.P.C. had seized eighty-seven bombs, seventy kilos of explosive, 5,120 fulminate of mercury detonators, 309 electric detonators, etc.

• fulmination
• fulminator
• fulminatory
• fulminic
• mercury fulminate
• silver fulminate

fulminate m (plural fulminates)

1. fulminate

• “fulminate”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

fulminate

1. inflection of fulminare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

fulminate f pl

1. feminine plural of fulminato

fulmināte

1. vocative masculine singular of fulminātus