Moloch

Definitions

1. Any of species Moloch horridus of Australian lizards, sole species of the genus Moloch.
2. An ancient Ammonite deity worshiped by the Canaanites, Phoenician and related cultures in North Africa and the Levant, often depicted with the head of a bull.
3. A person or thing demanding or requiring a very costly sacrifice.
   figuratively

Equivalents

Examples

“[W]e can't without wonder⟳ remember⟳ that horrid Invention projected in this place⟳, but thanks be to God diſappointed, wherein there was not Reverence to the ſacred Bones of Princes, but all were at one blaſt to be offer'd up to Moloch.”

“They [bankers] would do what has been done by the Bank of France—buy⟳ bullion at a premium, on the approach⟳ of danger, and keep⟳ peril at a safe and respectable distance. Any expenditure that might be incurred for that purpose would be small indeed when contrasted with the immense loss and suffering caused by the present⟳ system, and the continual fear in which the public now live⟳ of some new crisis—because it has been out of one and into another for a long period now; and that will be the case hereafter, until we have⟳ no interval to gather strength, and recruit for the next struggle⟳ with Mammon, or Moloch, or whatever other name⟳ of evil import belongs to the "Tutelarity" of Lombard-street and its precincts.”

“[…] poor Johnny Tetterby staggering under his Moloch of an infant, the Juggernaut that crushes all his enjoyments.”

CEFR level