Fulminate

I. In physical senses.

1. intr. To thunder and lighten. rare.

2. To issue as a thunderbolt.

†3. Metallurgy. Of gold: To become suddenly bright and uniform in colour. Obs.

†4. trans. To strike with lightning. Obs. rare.

5. To flash forth like lightning.

6. †a. trans. To cause to explode with sudden loud report (? obs.). b. intr. To explode with a loud report, detonate, go off.

II. fig.
[Originally a rendering of med.L. fulminare, the technical term for the formal issuing of condemnations or censures by the pope or other ecclesiastical authority; afterwards used with wider application and with reference to the literal sense.]

7. trans. To ‘thunder forth’; to utter or publish (a formal condemnation or censure) upon a person.

8. To strike with the ‘thunderbolts’ of ecclesiastical censure; hence gen. to denounce in scathing terms, condemn vehemently.

9. intr. Of the pope, etc.: To issue censures or condemnations (against); gen. to ‘thunder’, inveigh violently against.

10. Path. Of a disease: to develop suddenly and severely. (Cf. fulminating ppl. a. 3.)

Hence "fulminating vbl. n., the action of the vb.