< Latin fulmināt- participial stem of fulmināre to lighten, strike with lightning, < fulmen lightning.
I. In physical senses.
1. intr. To thunder and lighten. rare.
2. To issue as a thunderbolt.
3. Metallurgy. Of gold: To become suddenly bright and uniform in colour. Obs.
4. trans. To strike with lightning. Obs. rare.
5. To flash forth like lightning.
6.a. trans. To cause to explode with sudden loud report (? obs.).
b. intr. To explode with a loud report, detonate, go off.
II. fig. [Originally a rendering of medieval Latin fulminare, the technical term for the formal issuing of condemnations or censures by the pope or other ecclesiastical authority; afterwards used with wider application and with reference to the literal sense.]
7. trans. To ‘thunder forth’; to utter or publish (a formal condemnation or censure) upon a person.
8. To strike with the ‘thunderbolts’ of ecclesiastical censure; hence gen. to denounce in scathing terms, condemn vehemently.
9. intr. Of the pope, etc.: To issue censures or condemnations (against); gen. to ‘thunder’, inveigh violently against.
10. Pathol. Of a disease: to develop suddenly and severely. (OED)
"On that island is a temple to one of the golden gods. And in that temple is perhaps the only weapon powerful enough to bring down the Empyrean. The Fulminate Blade. One of the last living relics of the age of flight."
- Deirdre, Jack of Fables: The Fulminate Blade, Bill Willingham
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