1. holocaust(n = noun.act) - an act of mass destruction and loss of life (especially in war or by fire); "a nuclear holocaust"
is a kind of destruction, devastation
2. holocaust(n = noun.act) final solution - the mass murder of Jews under the German Nazi regime from 1941 until 1945;
is a kind of genocide, race murder, racial extermination
1. A burnt sacrifice; an offering, the whole of which was consumed by fire, among the Jews and some pagan nations. Milton. [1913 Webster]
2. Sacrifice or loss of many lives, as by the burning of a theater or a ship.
"[An extended use not authorized by careful writers.]" [1913 Webster]
3. The mass killing of millions of Jews by the Nazis during the period from 1933 to 1945 in Germany and German-occupied lands; usually referred to as
holocaust, n.
1 a case of large-scale destruction, esp. by fire or nuclear war.
2 (the Holocaust) the mass murder of the Jews by the Nazis 1939-45.
3 a sacrifice wholly consumed by fire.
Etymology:
ME f. OF holocauste f. LL holocaustum f. Gk holokauston (as HOLO-, kaustos burnt f. kaio burn)
N idolatry, idolism, demonism, demonolatry, idol- worship, demon-worship, devil-worship, fire-worship, zoolatry, fetishism, fetichism, ecclesiolatry, heliolatry, Mariolatry, Bibliolatry, deification, apotheosis, canonization, hero worship, sacrifices, hecatomb, holocaust, human sacrifices, immolation, mactation, infanticide, self-immolation, suttee, idol, golden calf, graven image, fetich, avatar, Juggernath, lares et penates, Baal, idolatrous, adorer le veau d'or.
N killing, homicide, manslaughter, murder, assassination, trucidation, iccusion, effusion of blood, blood, blood shed, gore, slaughter, carnage, butchery, battue, massacre, fusillade, noyade, thuggery, Thuggism, deathblow, finishing stroke, coup de grace, quietus, execution, judicial murder, martyrdom, butcher, slayer, murderer, Cain, assassin, terrorist, cutthroat, garroter, bravo, Thug, Moloch, matador, sabreur, guet-a-pens, gallows, executioner, man-eater, apache, hatchet man, highbinder, regicide, parricide, matricide, fratricide, infanticide, feticide, foeticide, uxoricide, vaticide, suicide, felo de se, hara-kiri, suttee, Juggernath, immolation, auto da fe, holocaust, suffocation, strangulation, garrote, hanging, lapidation, deadly weapon, Aceldama, slaughtering, phthisozoics, sport, sporting, the chase, venery, hunting, coursing, shooting, fishing, pig- sticking, sportsman, huntsman, fisherman, hunter, Nimrod, slaughterhouse, meat packing plant, shambles, abattoir, fatal accident, violent death, casualty, killing, murderous, slaughterous, sanguinary, sanguinolent, blood stained, blood thirsty, homicidal, red handed, bloody, bloody minded, ensanguined, gory, thuggish, mortal, fatal, lethal, dead, deadly, mortiferous, lethiferous, unhealthy internecine, suicidal, sporting, piscatorial, piscatory, in at the death, assassination has never changed the history of the.