doomsday event

doomsday event (plural doomsday events)

1. (cosmology, astronomy) An occurrence which causes the end of the universe or which destroys the planet earth; a global cataclysm.
   • 1995 April 7, Malcolm W. Browne, “A Research Team Detects Many More Galaxies”, in New York Times, retrieved 5 July 2008:

     The universe will contract and grow hotter until the doomsday event that astronomers have dubbed "the big crunch."

   • 2006, Ruben Curbelo et al., “Interacting phantom energy and avoidance of the big rip singularity”, in Classical and Quantum Gravity, volume 23, number 5, page 1591:

     In this subsection we face the question about the possibility of evading the doomsday event in phantom models of dark energy with interaction, which are inspired in scalar-tensor theories of gravity.

   • 2008 July 2, “World to end in August (maybe)”, in New Zealand Herald, retrieved 5 July 2008:

     Sceptics claim switching on the supercooled magnets could create a doomsday event that would destroy the Earth.

2. A localized event causing widespread death or destruction within a specific geographical area.
   • 2006, Greg Hollingshead, "Let Pynchon be Pynchon" (review of Against the Day by Thomas_Pynchon), Globe and Mail (Toronto), 2 Dec., p. D6:

     A mysterious occurrence late in the story is the historically factual Tunguska Event, a massive Siberian explosion, probably by an asteroid, in the summer of 1908: a doomsday event caused by an arrival from another realm.

   • 2007 May 8, Glen Warchol, “Earthquake-proof: Capitol is ready for a rumble”, in The Salt Lake Tribune:

     An earthquake of as much as 7.3 magnitude . . . is the maximum predicted earthquake in Utah, said Johnson. "We could call that a doomsday event."

3. (figuratively) A disastrous occurrence.
   • 1973, Joseph Church, Understanding Your Child from Birth to Three, →ISBN, page 175:

     Protect them against molestation, but if it happens, don't overact and inflate it into a doomsday event.

   • 1986 February 8, “Editorial: The flight that failed”, in The Nation, page 1:

     The Challenger explosion . . . became one big symbol for mankind. As the trauma diminishes in the weeks ahead, another meaning will emerge from the doomsday events.

   • 1998 December 28, “The Year of Living Carefully: Challenges ahead for China in 1999”, in Business Week, page 30:

     A record level of foreign reserves has made it unnecessary to devalue the currency—the doomsday event that terrifies finance ministries throughout the region.

   • 2007 May 22, Andy Nelesen, “Threat leads to security checks at Pulaski High School”, in Green Bay Press Gazette:

     "You just don't know if they are planning a doomsday event or not." Dunford said police worked with school officials to secure the building.

• doomsday device
• doomsday weapon