Stealing thunder

The thunder machine in the Auditorium Theatre. The taking of the idea for such a mechanism is the origin of the concept.

Stealing thunder is to take someone else's idea, using it for one's own advantage or to pre-empt the other party.

Origin

The idiom comes from the peevish dramatist John Dennis early in the 18th century, after he had conceived a novel idea for a thunder machine.^[1] There is an account of it in The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland by Robert Shiels and Theophilus Cibber:^[2]

Mr. Dennis happened once to go to the play, when a tragedy was acted, in which the machinery of thunder was introduced, a new artificial method of producing which he had formerly communicated to the managers. Incensed by this circumstance, he cried out in a transport of resentment, 'That is my thunder by G—d; the villains will play my thunder, but not my plays.'

Rhetorical use

In a contentious situation, such as a court case, political debate or public relations crisis, it is a tactic used to weaken the force of an adverse point.^[3] By introducing the point first and being open about it or rebutting it, the force of the opposition's argument is diminished – their thunder is stolen.^[4]

References