jug·ger·naut (j g  r-nôt )
n.
1. Something, such as a belief or institution, that elicits blind and destructive devotion or to which people are ruthlessly sacrificed.
2. An overwhelming, advancing force that crushes or seems to crush everything in its path: "It doesn't assume that people need necessarily remain passive when confronted by what appears to be the juggernaut of history" (Christopher Lehmann-Haupt).
3. Juggernaut Used as a title for the Hindu deity Krishna.
[Hindi jagann
 th, title of Krishna, from Sanskrit jaganntha , lord of the world : jagat, moving, the world (from earlier present participle of jigti, he goes; see gw- in Indo-European roots) + ntha, lord (from nthate, he helps, protects).Senses 1 and 2, from the fact that worshipers have thrown themselves under the wheels of a huge car or wagon on which the idol of Krishna was drawn in an annual procession at Puri in east-central India.] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published byHoughton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Sister Jen is suspicious of any behavior that suggests devotion to a juggernaut.
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