a. [a. Fr. foudroyant, pr. pple. of foudroyer to strike with or as with lightning, f. foudre: see FOULDRE.]
1. a. Thundering, stunning, noisy. b. Flashing, dazzling.
1840. De Quincey, Style, Wks. 1859, XI. 210. When the trumpet-stop was opened, and the ‘foudroyant’ style of the organist commenced the hailstone chorus from Marathon.
1860. O. W. Holmes, Elsie V., xxi. 292. With Helen Darley as a foil anybody would know she must be foudroyant and pyramidal,—if these French adjectives may be naturalized for this one particular exigency.
2. spec. in Pathol. of a disease: Beginning in a very sudden and severe form.
