Definition of "fulminate"

fulminate

/ˈfʌlmɪneɪt/

verb
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.
  Quotations
  They fulminated the most hostile of all decrees.
  1842, Thomas De Quincey, “Cicero”, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine
  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 […]
  1855, William Neilson, Mesmerism in its relation to health and disease, page 46
3. (intransitive) To thunder or make a loud noise.
4. (transitive, now rare) To strike with lightning; to cause to explode.
  Quotations
  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.
  2009, Thomas Pynchon, Inherent Vice, Vintage, published 2010, page 235
noun
plural fulminates
1. (chemistry) Any salt or ester of fulminic acid, mostly explosive.
  Quotations
  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.
  1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York: Review Books, published 2006, page 193