What it means
Someone with a face like thunder looks absolutely furious, dark and stormy, as if a thundercloud had rolled across their features. You can read the rage before a single word is spoken, the brow low, the jaw set, the whole room bracing for the storm. It is the look that makes everyone suddenly very busy with something else.
Usage examples
"She stormed in with a face like thunder and slammed the report on the desk."
"Dad came home with a face like thunder, so we all crept off to our rooms."
"She walked in from the parents evening with a face like thunder, sat at the kitchen table without taking her coat off, and started naming teachers in alphabetical order of who annoyed her most."
"Boss arrived this morning with a face like thunder after the network outage, the whole office went quiet at the desks, even the printer learned to whisper just for the hour."
Where it comes from
Sits squarely in the British weather imagination, where thunder is the moody storm gathering on the horizon. The phrase has been around since the nineteenth century at least, painting any furious expression with the same dark cloud, low brow and electric tension that comes before a downpour.
Other ways to say it
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