crack of doom

crack of doom

1. The signal for the final dissolution of all things by God; the last trump; the end of the world.
   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 144:

     Why do you ſhew me this?—A fourth? Start eyes! / What will the Line ſtretch out to th' cracke of Doome?

   • 1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 212:

     `[B]ut I knew you'd lie till the crack of doom unless I found you out openly.'