fulminate FUL-muh-nayt, intransitive verb:
1. To issue or utter verbal attacks or censures authoritatively or menacingly.
2. To explode; to detonate.
transitive verb:
1. To utter or send out with denunciations or censures.
2. To cause to explode.
This mass culture--global, immediate, accessible, buoyant, with shared heroes, models, and goals--is immensely intoxicating. Ayatollahs fulminate against it; dictators censor it; mandarins try to slam the door on it.
-- Lawrence M. Friedman, The Horizontal Society
He lets others fulminate on his behalf while he maintains his gentlemanly demeanor.
-- Richard Sandomir, "Cablevision's Dolan Makes the Deal Only When He's Ready", New York Times, December 6, 1998
Everyone wants to be young, beautiful and rich. I don't say that scornfully: there are worse things to want to be. But that's why, for example, people don't begrudge Kate Moss how much she earns for a day's work but will fulminate over the take-home pay of some fat, old Water Board exec.
-- Nigella Lawson, "Never mind the size, just feel the price", The Observer, September 3, 2000
Fulminate comes from Latin fulminare, "to strike with lightning," from fulmen, fulmin-, "a thunderbolt."
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