thun·der·cloud

(thŭn′dər-kloud′)

1. A large dark cloud charged with electricity and producing thunder and lightning; a cumulonimbus cloud.

2. Something menacing or dreadful: thunderclouds of impending war.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

thundercloud

(ˈθʌndəˌklaʊd)

1. (Physical Geography) a towering electrically charged cumulonimbus cloud associated with thunderstorms

2. anything that is threatening

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

cu•mu•lo•nim•bus

(ˌkyu myə loʊˈnɪm bəs)

n., pl. -bi (-baɪ) -bus•es.

a cloud indicative of thunderstorm conditions, characterized by large, dense towers that may reach great heights.

[1885–90]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

thundercloud - a dark cloud of great vertical extent charged with electricity; associated with thunderstorms

cumulonimbus, cumulonimbus cloud

cloud - a visible mass of water or ice particles suspended at a considerable altitude

thundercloud

noun

An indication of impending danger or harm:

foreboding, forewarning, threat.

Idioms: gathering clouds, storm clouds.

Translations

nuvolone

雷雲

thundercloud

[ˈθʌndəklaʊd] N → nube f tormentosa, nubarrón m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

thundercloud

[ˈθʌndə^rklaʊd] n → nuage m orageux

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

thundercloud

[ˈθʌndəˌklaʊd] n → nube f temporalesca (fig) → nube minacciosa

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

A motley phantasmagoria presents itself before him, which he describes in a few satirical touches, yet without expressing his opinion openly: he tells the people enough to set them all thinking and guessing; but in order to hurt nobody, he wraps his witty oracular judgments in a transparent veil, or rather in a lurid thundercloud, shooting forth bright sparks of wit, that they may fall in the powder-magazine of the expectant audience."

View in context

As the flames of the fire hidden within come more and more vividly and rapidly from an approaching thundercloud, so, as if in opposition to what was taking place, the lightning of hidden fire growing more and more intense glowed in the faces of these men.

View in context

"I don't think anyone would care to try it, if you looked as much like a thundercloud as you do now.

View in context

RUBY wine is drunk by knaves, Sugar spends to fatten slaves , Rose and vine-leaf deck buffoons; Thunderclouds are Jove's festoons, Drooping oft in wreaths of dread Lightning-knotted round his head; The hero is not fed on sweets, Daily his own heart he eats; Chambers of the great are jails, And head-winds right for royal sails.

View in context

And I got a drawing of a huffing and puffing thundercloud! I was one thrilled third-grader.

Kathy Hart to fill in three times on WGN 720-AM

Thundercloud was last of 12 in a Southwell nursery last time out and hadn't been on the racecourse for 125 days but gamely took the final race of the day, with Richard Kingscote in the saddle.

De Sousa weighs in with a double

One of the problematic tasks in the field of atmospheric electricity and lightning protection of terrestrial and near-earth air objects still remains one that is connected with the determination, with minimal initial information about the thunderstorm situation in the area of this or that territory of the planet studied by specialists (engineers and meteorologists) energy characteristics of the thundercloud cloud in the Earth's troposphere.

POWER DESCRIPTIONS OF A STORM CLOUD OF TROPOSPHERE OF EARTH: FEATURES OF THEIR CALCULATION AND APPLIED UTILIZATION

It's like seeing a thundercloud in the distance, expecting a little rain, and getting a monsoon instead." ARDI ALSPACH

Good Me Bad Me

Yesterday, retired former detective superintendent Cath Thundercloud, of Cumbria Police, who was head of the force's Crime Command at the time, was questioned over her review in 2014 of the original police investigation two years earlier, carried out by former beauty queen, Detective Inspector Amanda Sadler and her boss, Detective Chief Inspector Mike Forrester.

Poppi was 'failed' by investigators

Yesterday, retired former detective superintendent Cath Thundercloud of Cumbria Police, who was head of the force's Crime Command at the time, was questioned over her review in 2014 of the original police investigation two years earlier, carried out by former beauty queen, Detective Inspector Amanda Sadler and her boss Detective Chief Inspector Mike Forrester.

Poppi was 'failed' by investigators

The top plate of the capacitor represents the horizontal extent of the upper positive thundercloud charge (+Q) and the bottom plate the negative thundercloud charge (-Q).

Diurnal variation of TRMM/LIS lightning flash radiances