ppl. a. Also 7 -stroken, -strucken. (Usually in participial const., as predicate; less commonly in attrib. const., before the sb. For the purely ppl. use with auxiliary, see THUNDERSTRIKE.) [Orig. a later equivalent of thunderstricken.]
1. lit. Struck by lightning: cf. THUNDER sb. 1 b. Now rare or Obs.
1638. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 19. Falling downe as thunder-struck.
1676. Phil. Trans., XI. 648. Those Thunder-strucken ones [compasses] did never … recover their right positions.
1720. T. Boston, Fourfold State, II. i. (1784), 104. When a person is thunder-struck, oft-times there is not a wound to be seen in the skin.
1775. Adair, Amer. Ind., 86. Esteeming thunder-struck individuals under the displeasure of heaven.
2. fig. a. Struck with sudden amazement, terror, or the like; greatly amazed, astonished, terrified, or confounded.
1613. W. Browne, Brit. Past., I. i. The Thunder-stroken Swaine lean’d to a tree, As void of sense as weeping Niobe.
1687. Boyle, Martyrd. Theodora, v. Thunder-struck with this unexpected answer.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 60, ¶ 4. The Lover was thunder-struck with his Misfortune.
1775. Sheridan, Duenna, I. iii. I’m astonished! I’m thunder struck! here’s treachery and conspiracy with a vengeance!
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xx. IV. 402. Luxemburg was thunder-struck. He expostulated boldly and earnestly.
b. in reference to ecclesiastical censure, etc.; cf. THUNDER sb. 3 a, THUNDERBOLT 2. rare.
1649. Bp. Hall, Cases Consc., II. v. (1654), 202. How many famous Churches have beene … thunder-struck with direfull censures of Excommunication.
1680. H. More, Apocal. Apoc., 132. Gregory the seventh, when he had excommunicated the Emperour Henry the fourth, said, he was fulmine afflatus thunder-struck by him.
