Destruction (redirected from devastation)

Destruction

Abaddon

angel of the abyss; king of locusts. [N.T.: Revelation 9:11]

abomination of desolation

epithet for the destructive or hateful. [Western Folklore: Benét, 3]

atomic bomb

(A-bomb) fission device of enormous destructive power. [Am. Sci.: EB, I: 628]

Armageddon

final battle between forces of good and evil. [N.T.: Revelation 16:16]

Bikini and Eniwetok

Pacific atolls, sites of H-bomb testing. [Am. Hist.: Flexner, 12]

Doomsday device

superpower nuclear capability to destroy the world if attacked. [Brit. Cinema: Dr. Strangelove

Dresden, bombing of

allied incendiary bombs reduced city to inferno (February 13, 1945). [Ger. Hist.: Hitler, 1165; Am. Lit.: Slaughterhouse-Five]

Enlil

storm god responsible for deluge. [Babyl. Myth.: Parrinder, 91]

Enola Gay

B-52 that dropped the Hiroshima A-bomb. [U.S. Hist.: WB, W:405]

firebranded foxes

Samson unlooses them to scorch cornfields. [O.T.: Judges 15:3–6]

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

allegorical figures representing pestilence, war, famine, death. [N.T.: Revelation 6:1–8]

Götterdämmerung

great final battle between Teutonic pantheon and forces of evil. [Ger. Myth.: Leach, 461]

Hiroshima

Japanese city destroyed by A-bomb (1945). [Am. Hist.: Fuller, III

Hormah

Judah and his men level this Canaanite city. [O.T.: Judges 1:17]

Hundred Years War

reduced much of France to wasteland (1337–1453). [Eur. Hist.: Bishop, 382–395]

hydrogen bomb

(H-bomb) thermonuclear device more destructive than A-bomb. [Am. Sci.: EB, IX: 949]

Jericho, Walls of

razed on the seventh blowing of trumpets. [O.T.: Joshua 6]

Jerusalem

destroyed in 586 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar, and in A.D. 70 by Titus. [Jew. Hist.: Collier’s, XI, 16, 17]

Juggernaut

(Jagannath) huge idol of Krishna drawn through streets annually, occasionally rolling over devotees. [Hindu Rel.: EB, V: 499]

Krakatoa

volcano in southwest Pacific which violently exploded in 1883, destroying the island. [Asian Hist.: NCE, 1500]

Kristallnacht Nazi

rampage against property of German Jews (November 9–10, 1938). [Ger. Hist.: Hitler, 689–694]

Lidice

Czech town obliterated by Nazis (June 10, 1942). [Eur. Hist.: Van Doren, 489]

Mt. St. Helens

volcanic eruption that devastated huge area in 1980. [U. S. Hist.: WB, M:735]

Nagasaki

Japanese city destroyed by A-bomb (1945). [Am. Hist.: Fuller, III: 626]

neutron bomb

causes limited havoc: kills people, preserves property. [World Hist.: Facts (1978), 103]

On the Beach

describes search for survivors after entire population on North America has been wiped out by nuclear war. [Br. Lit.: Weiss, 332]

Ragnarok

destruction of gods and all things in final battle with evil. [Norse Myth.: NCE, 1762]

Rome, Sack of

destroyed by the German-Spanish army under Charles V (1527). [Ital. Hist.: Plumb, 43, 406–407]

Sherman’s “March to the Sea”

Confederate heartland ravaged by marauding Union army (1864). [Am. Hist.: Jameson, 307]

Sodom and Gomorrah

Biblical cities destroyed by fire for wicked ways. [O.T.: Genesis 10:19; 13; 14; 18; 19]

Thirty Years War

world war prototype reduced Germany to wasteland (1618–1648). [Eur. Hist.: EB, 18: 333–344]

Vesuvius

volcano in Italy which erupted in A.D. 79, burying Pompeii and Herculaneum. [Rom. Hist.: NCE, 2187]

Vials of Wrath

seven plagues precipitating end of world. [N.T.: Revelation 16:1–17]

Vulcan

god of destruction, placated by gifts of captured weapons. [Rom. Myth.: Howe, 294]