juggernaut1
/ˈdʒʌɡənɔːt
/noun British
1A large, heavy vehicle, especially an articulated lorry: the juggernaut thundered through the countryside...
- Misha kept the map under her arm and walked back over to the black juggernaut, the Polish lorry driver climbing back into his cab.
- It whizzes up steep hills with brio and remains stable as it passes coaches and juggernauts.
- Now the juggernauts and caravans are thundering up again from the south coast on their extra lanes.
1.1A huge, powerful, and overwhelming force: the juggernaut of public expenditure...
- He described the development, which could start as early as 2007, as ‘a huge juggernaut heading this way’.
- The Local Government forced amalgamation juggernaut is on its way.
- People round the world look at the US and see a powerful, war-hungry juggernaut.
Origin
Mid 19th century: extension of Juggernaut.
If you are stuck behind an articulated lorry, or juggernaut, on the motorway, a beach resort on the Bay of Bengal is probably not what springs to mind. But Juggernaut (in Sanskrit Jagannātha, ‘Lord of the World’) is the name given to the form of the Hindu god Krishna worshipped in Puri, eastern India, where at a festival each year his huge image is dragged through the streets in a heavy chariot. The use of the word for a large, heavy vehicle came into English, along with many other Hindi words, in the mid 19th century.
Juggernaut2
/ˈdʒʌɡənɔːt/ Old-fashioned name for Jagannatha.