JUGGERNAUT

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Juggernaut mean? 

• JUGGERNAUT (noun)
  The noun JUGGERNAUT has 3 senses:

1. a massive inexorable force that seems to crush everything in its way

2. an avatar of Vishnu

3. a crude idol of Krishna

  Familiarity information: JUGGERNAUT used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• JUGGERNAUT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A massive inexorable force that seems to crush everything in its way

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

juggernaut; steamroller

Hypernyms ("juggernaut" is a kind of...):

force; power (one possessing or exercising power or influence or authority)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An avatar of Vishnu

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Jagannath; Jagannatha; Jagganath; Juggernaut

Instance hypernyms:

avatar (the manifestation of a Hindu deity (especially Vishnu) in human or superhuman or animal form)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A crude idol of Krishna

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("Juggernaut" is a kind of...):

god; graven image; idol (a material effigy that is worshipped)

 Context examples 

It wasn’t like a man; it was like some damned Juggernaut.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Teachers, you must watch her: keep your eyes on her movements, weigh well her words, scrutinise her actions, punish her body to save her soul: if, indeed, such salvation be possible, for (my tongue falters while I tell it) this girl, this child, the native of a Christian land, worse than many a little heathen who says its prayers to Brahma and kneels before Juggernaut—this girl is—a liar!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He would be aware of the great field of lamps of a nocturnal city; then of the figure of a man walking swiftly; then of a child running from the doctor’s; and then these met, and that human Juggernaut trod the child down and passed on regardless of her screams.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)