mass noun
1- the occurrence of a natural electrical discharge of very short duration and high voltage between a cloud and the ground or within a cloud, accompanied by a bright flash and typically also thunder闪电：
a tremendous flash of lightning.
一道巨大的闪电。
1.1
- count noun poetic/literary a flash or discharge of this kind〈诗/文〉闪电, 电光闪过; 闪电（似的）光：
the sky was a mass of black cloud out of which lightnings flashed.
天空布满乌云, 闪电从中掠过。
attrib.
- very quick闪电般快的：
a lightning cure for his hangover
针对他酒后不适感觉的快速疗法
galloping across the country at lightning speed.
以闪电般的速度骑马穿越田野。
USAGE
The form lightning is historically a contracted form of lightening（it was at one time spelled light'ning） but the two forms are now two distinct words. In the sense thunder and lightning and lightning speed, the spelling is always lightning, while in the sense 'make or become lighter' the spelling is always lightening. More than 15 per cent of citations for lightening in the British National Corpus are in fact misspellings of lightning.
短语
lightning never strikes twice in the same place
- proverb an unusual situation or event is unlikely to happen again in exactly the same circumstances or to the same person〈谚〉罕见的事情不会在完全相同的情况下再度发生（或不会再次发生在同一个人身上）。
like(greased) lightning
- very quickly闪电般地迅疾。
词源
Middle English: special use of lightening （verbal noun from LIGHTEN2 ）.