Forms: 3–7 apocalips(e, 4 appocalyppce, -lipse, 4–5 apocolyps, -lips, (5 pocalyps), 5–7 apocalyps, 6 lippis, appocalypse, 6– apocalypse. [ad. L. apocalypsis, a. Gr. ἀποκάλυψις, n. of action f. ἀποκαλύπτειν to uncover, disclose, f. ἀπό off + καλύπτειν to cover.]
1. The ‘revelation’ of the future granted to St. John in the isle of Patmos. The book of the New Testament in which this is recorded.
[c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 81. Herof seid Seint Johan þe ewangeliste in apocalipsi.]
c. 1230. Ancr. R., 94. ‘Hit is a derne halewi,’ seið sein Johan ewangeliste in þe Apocalipse.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 7395. That sallow horse of hewe, That in the Apocalips is shewed.
a. 1440. Sir Degrev., 1437. The Pocalyps of Ion.
1581. Walker, in Confer., IV. (1584), Z iiij b. The Laodicean Councill omitteth Lukes Gospel & the Apocalyps.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 2. That warning voice which he who saw Th’ Apocalyps, heard cry in Heaven aloud.
1870. Disraeli, Lothair, xliv. 230. The long-controverted point whether Rome in the great Apocalypse was signified by Babylon.
2. By extension: Any revelation or disclosure.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Cor. xiv. 26. He hath techinge, he hath apocalips, or reuelacioun, he hath tunge.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., III. iv. I. 756 (L.). Interpret Apocalypses, & those hidden misteries to priuat persons, times, places.
1704. Swift, T. Tub, i. (1750), 31. The Revelation or rather the Apocalypse of all State-arcana.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., II. v. The new apocalypse of Nature unrolled to him.
