Definition of "apocalyptic"

Of or relating to an apocalypse:

1. Of or relating to an apocalypse (a revelation), revelatory; prophetic.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Let him go and make, and burn, a pile or two [of bricks] with his own hands; he will thereby receive apocalyptic visions of a nature novel to his soul.

     1876, John Ruskin, “Letter LXIV”, in Fors Clavigera. Letters to the Workmen and Labourers of Great Britain, volume VI, Orpington, Kent: George Allen, page 116

   • From beginning to end, and throughout, the Gospel makes such frequent use of apocalyptic motifs and the apocalyptic viewpoint that it deserves to be called the apocalyptic Gospel."

     1985, Donald A. Hagner, Apocalyptic Motifs in the Gospel of Matthew: Continuity and Discontinuity, page 92

   • This was because apocalyptic stories — from the Greek word apohalupsis which means "reveal" — uses the vocabulary of symbols and numbers and contains concealed messages that secular listeners cannot comprehend.

     2002, Peter W. Smith, In the Day of the Lord: The Exciting and Promised Fulfillment, page 7

2. Of or relating to an apocalypse (a disaster).  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • For the first time since the show began, a sense of utter loneliness overwhelmed me, a bitter despair at the uselessness of individual effort in this gigantic tragedy of apocalyptic destruction.

     1919, Arthur Hamilton Gibbs, Gun Fodder: The Diary of Four Years of War‎, Little, Brown, page 276

   • In fact, interpreters commonly declare that Mark is an "apocalyptic" Gospel. When they read Jesus' long speech toward the end of the Gospel (chap. 13), they even detect a veritable "apocalypse": "Wars and rumors of wars, […] "

     2001, Richard A. Horsley, Hearing the Whole Story: The Politics of Plot in Mark's Gospel, page 122

   • These bookends house a wealth of apocalyptic stories. The Bible, like some street preacher with a sign, shouts, "The end is near!"

     2010, Philip Leroy Culbertson, Elaine Mary Wainwright, Bible in Popular Culture, page 184

   • Life in the SCP universe continually hangs by a thread, threatened constantly by the existence of a number of dangerous and apocalyptic anomalies. These threats are countered and contained by the existence of organizations such as the SCP Foundation or the Global Occult Coalition.

     2019 January 14, “Exploring the SCP Foundation: SCP-2935 - O, Death” (0:07 from the start), in The Exploring Series‎, archived from the original on 25 March 2023

   • […] and the pillar of smoke which had recently begun to dissipate, as many of the fires amidships had been smothered by the onrushing water, was replaced by a vast mushroom cloud of steam, smoke, flame, and debris as the magazines detonated. In the pall of this apocalyptic destruction, the U.S. fleet takes stock.

     2021 May 5, Drachinifel, 42:53 from the start, in Battle of Samar - What if TF34 was there?‎, archived from the original on 19 August 2022

Portending a future apocalypse (disaster, devastation, or doom).  examples

Catachresis for apoplectic.  examples

One who predicts apocalypse.  examples