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osion shatters a rock or a bomb; too much steam shatters a boiler; an oak is shattered by lightning. A monarchy was shattered to pieces, and divided amongst revolted subjects. Locke.

e discharge between a conductor traversed by an oscillatory current of high frequency (as lightning) and neighboring masses of metal, or between different parts of the same conductor.

; being in the sky. "Skyey regions." Thackeray. Sublime on the towers of my skyey bowers, Lightning, my pilot, sits. Shelley.

ned from a direct line, whether horizontal or perpendicular; sloping; oblique. "The slant lightning." Milton.

To split or rend into long, thin pieces; to shiver; as, the lightning splinters a tree. After splintering their lances, they wheeled about, and . . . abandoned the field to the enemy. Prescott.

violent disturbance of the atmosphere, attended by wind, rain, snow, hail, or thunder and lightning; hence, often, a heavy fall of rain, snow, or hail, whether accompanied with wind or not. We hear this fearful tempest sing, Yet seek no shelter to avoid the storm. Shak.

The sound which follows a flash of lightning; the report of a discharge of atmospheric electricity.

A shaft of lightning; a brilliant stream of electricity passing from one part of the heavens to another, or from the clouds to the earth.

A cloud charged with electricity, and producing lightning and thunder.

Secure against the effects of thunder or lightning.

A shower accompanied with lightning and thunder.

A thunderbolt, -- formerly believed to be a stone. Fear no more the lightning flash, Nor the all-dreaded thunderstone. Shak.

A storm accompanied with lightning and thunder.

To strike, blast, or injure by, or as by, lightning. [R.] Sir P. Sidney.

by a rapid whirling and slow progressive motion, usually accompaned with severe thunder, lightning, and torrents of rain, and commonly of short duration and small breadth; a small cyclone.

Anything drawn out to a length; as, the trail of a meteor; a trail of smoke. When lightning shoots in glittering trails along. Rowe.

o; vanish into air; away! Shak. The champions vanished from their posts with the speed of lightning. Sir W. Scott. Gliding from the twilight past to vanish among realities. Hawthorne.

mated; spirited; bright; strong; intense; as, vivid colors. In dazzling streaks the vivid lightnings play. Cowper. Arts which present, with all the vivid charms of painting, the human face and human form divine. Bp. Hobart.

Out of which. [R.] The cleft whereout the lightning breaketh. Holland.

A sort of lightning unaccompanied by thunder. [R.]