doomsday
(ˈduːmzdeɪ)
[OE. dómes dæᵹ, ME. domes dei, dai, day of judgement: see doom n.]
1. a. The judgement day.
| c 975 Rushw. G. Matt. x. 15 At domes dæᵹe. c 1000 Ags. G. ibid., On domes dæᵹ. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 95 On his efter to-come þet is on domes deie. a 1225 Ancr. R. 58 Heo is gulti..and schal uor his soule onswerien a Domesdei. a 1300 Cursor M. 498 (Cott.) And sua sal do to domes dai. 1533 Gau Richt Vay (1888) 34 Yair sal be na generacione na corrupcione efter dwmis day. 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. iii. i. 98 Men, Wiues, and Children, stare, cry out, and run, As it were Doomesday. 1742 Young Nt. Th. i. 366 The present moment terminates our sight; Clouds, thick as those on doomsday, drown the next. |
b. esp. in phr.: till doomsday: to the end of the world, as long as the world lasts, for ever.
| c 1200 Ormin 17682 All þatt follc þatt fra þiss daȝȝ Till Domess daȝȝ shall wurrþenn. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 8734 Hit myght laste til Domesday. 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. (1567) 103 a, If a man should aske me till Doumes daie, I would still crie silence, silence. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. v. ii. 232 When thou hast done this chare, Ile giue thee leaue To play till Doomesday. 1850 Carlyle Latter-d. Pamph. i. 4 Questions which all official men wished..to postpone till Doomsday. 1886 Froude Oceana 233 They might have waited till Doomsday in the afternoon before [etc.]. |
c. transf. A day of judgement or trial, when sentence is pronounced. Also, a day of final dissolution, as at the end of the world.
| 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 181 Dost thou not knowe that euery ones deathes daye is his do[o]mes daye? 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, v. i. 12 Why then Al-soules day is my bodies doomsday. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iii. xxiii. 215 This bell was taken down at the doomsday of abbeys. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. vi, His sudden bereavement..is talked of as a real Doomsday and Dissolution of Nature. |
2. = Domesday: the usual spelling in 17–18th c., still used, esp. in fig. or transf. senses.
3. attrib. doomsday machine (see quot. 1961); also doomsday bomb.
| 1649 Milton Eikon. iii. (1851) 358 The Kings admirers may..mistake this Book for a Monument of his worth and wisdom, when as indeed it is his Doomsday Booke. 1654 Trapp Comm. Esther iv. 8 That dreadful day of judgement, when that doomes-day book shall be opened. 1781 Cowper Hope 693 Conscience..writes a Doomsday sentence on his heart. 1842 C. Whitehead Richard Savage (1845) III. ix. 420 Long doomsday faces. 1960 H. Kahn On Thermonuclear War x. 489 Technology, 1969..Doomsday Machines. Ibid. 500 The last two items in Table 65 are probably the most important, even if not very probable. Foremost are Doomsday Machines. I am not predicting that they will be built... It is most unlikely that either the Soviet Union or the U.S. would build such machines. 1961 New Scientist 26 Oct. 230/1 The Doomsday Machine is a hypothetical weapon which is capable of destroying all human life. 1965 B. Russell Autobiogr. (1969) III. iv. 211 Cobalt would be necessary for the Doomsday Bomb. 1968 Observer 31 Mar. 25/4 The idea of a nuclear ‘Doomsday machine’, capable of destroying all life on earth, is not technically absurd. 1970 A. Dipper Hard Trip xiv. 200 It is unutterably evil, and dangerous as a doomsday bomb. |