Etymology

From Hindustani जगन्नाथ / (jagannāth) < Sanskrit जगन्नाथ (jagannātha) "lord of the universe", a title for the Hindu deity Vishnu's avatar Krishna, as incorporated in a recent Christian myth - British colonial era - describing the huge annual processional wagon of the idol of lord Krishna in Puri, Orissa. Pulled with ropes by hundreds of devotees, the wagon reaches quite a momentum and becomes unstoppable.

Noun

1. A literal or metaphorical force or object regarded as unstoppable, that will crush all in its path.
2. A large, cumbersome truck or lorry, especially an artic (typically used somewhat disparagingly).
3. An institution that incites destructive devotion or to which people are carelessly sacrificed.
4. A massive inexorable force, movement, campaign, or object that crushes whatever in its way.

Quotations

• 1895— H. G. Wells, The Wheels of Chance, ch XII

  Anon Mr. Hoopdriver found himself riding out of the darkness of non-existence, pedalling Ezekiel's Wheels across the Weald of Surrey, jolting over the hills and smashing villages in his course, while the other man in brown cursed and swore at him and shouted to stop his career. There was the Putney heath-keeper, too, and the man in drab raging at him. He felt an awful fool, a- -what was it?--a juggins, ah!--a Juggernaut.