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Webster 1828 Edition


Apocalyptic

APOCALYP'TIC

,

Definition 2024


apocalyptic

apocalyptic

English

Adjective

apocalyptic (not comparable)

  1. Of or relating to an apocalypse:
    1. Of or relating to an apocalypse (a revelation), revelatory; prophetic.
      • 1985, Donald A. Hagner, Apocalyptic Motifs in the Gospel of Matthew: Continuity and Discontinuity, quoted in 2007 by Jonathan T. Pennington in Heaven and Earth in the Gospel of Matthew, page 92:
        "From beginning to end, and throughout, the Gospel makes such frequent use of apocalyptic motifs and the apocalyptic viewpoint that it deserves to be called the apocalyptic Gospel."
      • 2002, Peter W. Smith, In the Day of the Lord: The Exciting and Promised Fulfillment, page 7:
        This was because apocalyptic stories — from the Greek word apohalupsis which means “reveal” — uses the vocabulary of symbols and numbers and contains concealed messages that secular listeners cannot comprehend.
    2. Of or relating to an apocalypse (a disaster).
      • 2001, Richard A. Horsley, Hearing the whole story: the politics of plot in Mark's gospel, page 122:
        In fact, interpreters commonly declare that Mark is an "apocalyptic" Gospel. When they read Jesus' long speech toward the end of the Gospel (chap. 13), they even detect a veritable "apocalypse": "Wars and rumors of wars, [] "
      • 2010, Philip Leroy Culbertson, Elaine Mary Wainwright, Bible in popular culture, page 184:
        These bookends house a wealth of apocalyptic stories. The Bible, like some street preacher with a sign, shouts, “The end is near!”
  2. Portending a future apocalypse (disaster, devastation, or doom).
  3. (nonstandard) Eggcorn of apoplectic.
    He was apocalyptically furious.

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Noun

apocalyptic (plural apocalyptics)

  1. One who predicts apocalypse.

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