doomsday device en · NOUN
Etymology
Coined as Doomsday Machine by military strategist Herman Kahn.
Meanings
-
A hypothetical weapon (often a bomb) programmed to automatically be used in response to certain attacks, usually with very dire consequences (such as the annihilation of the world).
For more than a year, ominous rumors had been privately circulating among high-level Western leaders that the Soviet Union had been at work on what was darkly hinted to be the ultimate weapon: a doomsday device.
1964, Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern, Peter George, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, spoken by Narrator:Of course, Henry M. Paulson Jr., the Treasury secretary, is calling for merging the S.E.C. with the easygoing Commodity Futures Trading Commission, in the financial equivalent of setting off a Doomsday Device.
2008 April 27, Ben Stein, “Wall Street, Run Amok”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:Near-synonyms: doomsday bomb, Dead Hand
- An extremely powerful weapon.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| doomsday devices | Number=Plur | lexicographic | |
| Doomsday Device | alternative | lexicographic |
Relateds
nuclear deterrent · doomsday event · Dr. Strangelove · extinction event