thunderbolt• And it hit me like a thunderbolt.• Like a thunderbolt it had come, just when he looked like losing it all.• To her his departure had come like a cruelthunderbolt.• Thunder and lightning are caused when Zeus hurls his thunderbolt.• Pollux stabbed Lynceus, and Zeus struck Idas with his thunderbolt.• His public outbursts of temper and his oratorical thunderbolts of defiance were likewise psychologicalreinforcements for a person who needed them.• Dadclapped his hands over his cheeks when the thunderbolt struck.