foudroyant \foo-DROI-uhnt\, adjective:
1. Overwhelming and sudden in effect.
2. Pathology. (Of disease) beginning in a sudden and severe form.
3. Striking as with lightning.
When it suddenly occurred to John, however, that this perhaps had some share in the ladies' hasty decision, that Mrs. Dennistoun perhaps (all that was objectionable was attributed to this poor lady) had been so abominably clear-sighted, so odiously presuming as to have suspected this, his sudden blaze of anger was foudroyant.
-- Margaret Oliphant, The marriage of Elinor
I remember myself, in childhood, to have met a niece of John Wesley the ProtoMethodist, who always spoke of the second Lord Mornington (author of the well-known glees) as a cousin, and as intimately connected with her brother the great foudroyant performer on the organ.
-- Thomas De Quincey, The note book of an English opium-eater
Foudroyant is adapted from the French foudroyer, "to strike with lightning."
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