apocalypse
/əˈpɒkəlɪps
/noun
1 (often the Apocalypse) The complete final destruction of the world, as described in the biblical book of Revelation: the bell’s ringing is supposed to usher in the Apocalypse...
- Unless you count the first two signs of The Apocalypse that suddenly appeared during the course of the day.
- The batty old lady had made the mistake of incurring the wrath of the Riders of the Apocalypse, and she paid for that within the second.
- The Apocalypse was drawing near and all he could do to stop it was kill.
1.1 (the Apocalypse) (Especially in the Vulgate Bible) the book of Revelation.
2An event involving destruction or damage on a catastrophic scale: the apocalypse of World War II...
- As ever, Roth has the ability to suggest a vast historical catastrophe through the tiny apocalypses of ordinary life, which he renders with all of Baudelaire's poetic acuity.
- They say an apocalypse is coming and, after so much destruction, many suspect it has already started.
- These modernist writers wrote at what they took to be a moment of transition, between two apocalypses, one historical - and thus merely destructive - and one to be imagined.
Phrases
the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Origin
Old English, via Old French and ecclesiastical Latin from Greek apokalupsis, from apokaluptein 'uncover, reveal', from apo- 'un-' + kaluptein 'to cover'.