Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun One who attacks and seeks to overthrow traditional or popular ideas or institutions.
- noun One who destroys sacred religious images.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A breaker or destroyer of images; a person conspicuously hostile to the use of images in Christian worship.
- noun One of those Protestants of the Netherlands who, during the reign of Philip II., riotously destroyed the images in many of the Roman Catholic churches.
- noun Hence Any destroyer, denouncer, or exposer of errors or impostures; one who systematically attacks cherished beliefs.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A breaker or destroyer of images or idols; a determined enemy of idol worship.
- noun One who exposes or destroys impositions or shams; one who attacks cherished beliefs; a radical.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun One who destroys religious images or
icons , especially an opponent of theOrthodox Church in the 8th and 9th centuries, or aPuritan during the EuropeanReformation . - noun One who opposes
orthodoxy and religion; one who adheres to thedoctrine oficonoclasm . - noun One who attacks cherished beliefs.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a destroyer of images used in religious worship
- noun someone who attacks cherished ideas or traditional institutions
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The 54-year-old iconoclast is everything his longtime readers would expect — articulate, witty, obstinate and enigmatic.
Alan Moore Has No Hoorays for Hollywood | Disinformation 2008
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Every iconoclast is a rabble-rouser, a prophet handing torches to the mob and leading them to storm the temples, smash the graven images, and burn the throne-room to the ground.
Archive 2006-09-01 Hal Duncan 2006
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Every iconoclast is a rebel, a prophet who knows the illegitimacy of the god-king's reign and how that may one day bring it down.
The Sacred Domain Hal Duncan 2006
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Every iconoclast is a rabble-rouser, a prophet handing torches to the mob and leading them to storm the temples, smash the graven images, and burn the throne-room to the ground.
The Sacred Domain Hal Duncan 2006
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Every iconoclast is a rebel, a prophet who knows the illegitimacy of the god-king's reign and how that may one day bring it down.
Archive 2006-09-01 Hal Duncan 2006
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Likewise, as a therapist, she could be described as an iconoclast.
A Funny Time to Be Gay Ed Karvoski Jr. 1997
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Likewise, as a therapist, she could be described as an iconoclast.
A Funny Time to Be Gay Ed Karvoski Jr. 1997
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Post "the sixties" everyone likes to be called an iconoclast.
Frank Schaeffer: Divinity of Doubt Frank Schaeffer 2011
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Post "the sixties" everyone likes to be called an iconoclast.
Frank Schaeffer: Divinity of Doubt Frank Schaeffer 2011
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Post "the sixties" everyone likes to be called an iconoclast.
Frank Schaeffer: Divinity of Doubt Frank Schaeffer 2011
hernesheir commented on the word iconoclast
A smashing word this is, just waiting to be smashed.
January 19, 2010
TrueObsession14 commented on the word iconoclast
Iconoclast and maverick can be positive or negative.
October 13, 2014
mohitanand commented on the word iconoclast
somebody who attacks cherished beliefs or institutions
Lady Gaga, in challenging what it means to be clothed, is an iconoclast for wearing a "meat dress" to a prominent awards show.
October 11, 2016
isnotnull commented on the word iconoclast
Author Robert O. Paxton, in his book titled “The Anatomy of Fascism,” uses the term iconoclast to describe Friedrich Nietzsche and later generations of philosophers such as Sartre and Foucault. In my humble opinion, if there is any one philosopher who most embodies the term iconoclast, it is Nietzsche.
September 19, 2023