lightning bolt

noun4

1. •
   A single, visible discharge of lightning.
2. •
   A conventional representation of a lightning bolt as a zigzag line.
3. •
   A conventional representation of a lightning bolt in heraldry or in artistic depictions of thunder gods, for example as a winged and barbed torch.
4. •
   (figurative) Something that shocks or energizes, especially something that does so suddenly.

   • In this sense there was an uncomfortable similarity between the lettre de cachet, the “lightning bolt of despotism,” and the people that judged, not like a court of law, but like a force of nature. — 2011