Meaning

(religion) An offering or sacrifice to a deity that is completely burned to ashes..

Definitions by Sense

1. (religion) An offering or sacrifice to a deity that is completely burned to ashes.
2. A complete or large offering or sacrifice.
3. Complete destruction by fire; also, the thing so destroyed.
4. Extensive destruction of a group of animals or (especially) people; a large-scale massacre or slaughter.
5. Alternative letter-case form of Holocaust (“the systematic mass murder (democide or genocide) of Jews (and, more broadly, of disabled people, homosexuals, Romanis, Slavs, and others) perpetrated by Nazi Germany shortly before and during World War II”); hence, the state-sponsored mass murder of a particular group of people in society.
6. (religion, also figuratively) To sacrifice (chiefly an animal) to be completely burned.
7. To destroy (something) completely, especially by fire.
8. To subject (a group of people) to a holocaust (mass annihilation); to destroy en masse.

Example Sentences

And the ſcribe ſayde vnto hym: well maſter⸝ thou haſt ſayde the trugthe⸝ thatt there ys one God⸝ and that there is none but he. And to love hym with all the herte⸝ and with all the mynde⸝ and with all the ſoule⸝ ãd with all the ſtrẽgthe. And to love a mans nehbour as hym ſilfe⸝ ys a greater thynge then all holocauſtꝭ [holocaustes] and ſacrifiſes.

[…] Iſaac carried on his back the wood for the ſacrifice; which being an holocauſt or burnt offering to be conſumed unto aſhes, we cannot well conceive the wood a burthen for a boy; but ſuch a one unto Iſaac, as that which it typified was unto Chriſt, that is the wood or croſſe whereon he ſuffered; […]

In the firſt part whereof [i.e., of the inner court of the Temple of God mentioned in Revelation 11:1] is the Temple, which conſiſts of the Sanctum, and Sanctum Sanctorum, and in the latter part thereof ſtands the Altar of Holocauſts, which whole ſpace therefore is Thyſiaſterion, or the place of ſacrificing, and was not to be rendred Altar, but the place where the Altar ſtands.

Inſnar'd ſhe was in Shechems Treachery, / And, ſilly Mayden, ſuddenly became / An Holocauſt to Luſts unhappy Flame.

Oh! and with what a noble freeness on the contrary will not that good soldier, the worthy Spaniard present himself, who, wreathed with laurels, shall run after triumph to the altar of his august mother (his country), and offer up to her in holocaust, the arms and the banners of the vanquished foe; or else testify his bravery by his blood, and body all over glorious sears.

Is it because the Grand Seignior [of Turkey] does not recognise the religion of Christ, or because himself and his predecessors have so long enjoyed the privilege of shedding Christian blood at their pleasure? […] Surely the memorable facts of our [Greek] forefathers having created the arts and sciences, and propagated Christianity, furnish no good reason why their descendants should be offered up as holocausts to modern legitimacy!

Word Forms

• holocausts
• holocausting
• holocausted

Synonyms for holocaust

Related Words

When Should You Use Holocaust?

Use holocaust when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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