abyss 
abyss (ə bis′)
noun
- a deep fissure in the earth; bottomless gulf; chasm
- anything too deep for measurement; profound depth abyss of shame, of time, etc.
- the ocean depths
- Theol. the primeval void or chaos before the Creation
Etymology: L abyssus < Gr abyssos < a-, without + byssos, bottom
Preposition: of
- darkness: Out of the abyss of darkness will come the moaning of men who gnawed their tongues in agony.
- despair: For a horrible moment, La Domina hovered on the abyss of despair.
- hell: From the fiery abyss of Hell 's kitchen literally comes the return of the culinary art's diminutive demon, Devil Chef!
- evil: But this much I can say: we stand at the brink of an abyss of evil that knows no bottom.
- space: I am afraid we inhabit a tiny rock in the abyss of space and there is nothing significant about humans.
- death: After wandering in the abyss of death, I come to realize that I am being sustained by them to live on.
Converse of object
- cross: By contrast, an unlikely spark can also cross the abyss unexpectedly.
- see: Peering over the parapet of the bridge, one saw a deep murky abyss, from which sounds of swiftly flowing water rose.
- yawn: We are faced with the yawning psychological abyss of patricide.
- create: As one teacher put it, 'The mind creates the abyss; the heart crosses it. ' From Who Dies?
- confront: They confront terrifying abysses - physical, emotional, spiritual - and continually change roles, change themselves, change the worlds about them.
- fill: It took in excess of two full loads of readymixed concrete to fill the abyss.
Adjective modifier
- fathomless: Victorian thinkers called it the ' great chasm ' or the ' fathomless abyss ' .
- bottomless: First he seemed plunged into a bottomless abyss of grief.
- watery: The Egyptian records tell that Atum " was alone in the primeval watery abyss " ( 35 ).
- dark: He stared down at the dark abyss between Gaia's legs.
- deep: Yet even from the highest peak he'll fall into the deepest abyss from where there's no escape.
- moral: Thursday should not be an occasion for congratulating ourselves on how far we have come from the moral abyss of National Socialism.
Noun used with modifier
As a military man who has given half a century of active service,Isay inall sincerity thatthenucleararmsracehas no military purpose. Wars cannot be fought with nuclear weapons; their existence onlyadds to our perils because of the illusions that they have generated. The world now stands on the brink of the final abyss. Let us all resolve to take all possible practicable steps to ensurethat we donot, through ourownfolly, go over the edge.
And chiefly thou O spirit, that does prefer Before all temples th'upright heart and pure, Instruct me, for thou know'st; thou from the first Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast abyss And mad'st it pregnant: what in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and support; That to the highth of this great argument I mayassert Eternal Providence, And justify the ways of God to men. 580
The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.
After all the doors were shut, our region is facing a deep abyss after the turning of the Gulf crisis into an imminent catastrophe.We have not left a door that we did not knockon, ora road that we did not taketofind a political settlement of this crisis.
Le coeur d'une me' re est un ab|"me au fond duquel se trouve toujours un pardon. A mother'sheart isanabyss atthebottomof whichthere is always forgiveness.
Avictoriousgeneral isabletomakehissoldiersfight with the effect of pent-up waters which, suddenly released, plunge into a bottomless abyss.
It is not difficult to censor foreign news. What is difficult today is to censor one's own thoughts,ö To sit by and see the blind man On the sightless horse, riding into the bottomless abyss.
Der Mensch ist ein Seil, geknu« pft zwischenTier und « Ubermensch,öein Seil u« ber einem Abgrunde. Man is a rope, fastened between animal and Supermanöa rope over an abyss.
Nor second he, that rode sublime Upon the seraph-wings of ecstasy, The secrets of th'abyss to spy. He passed the flaming bounds of place and time: 370 The living throne, the sapphire-blaze, Where angels tremble, while they gaze, He saw; but blasted with excess of light, Closed his eyes in endless night.
Who shall tempt with wand'ring feet The dark unbottomed infinite abyss And through the palpable obscure find out His uncouth way, or spread his aery flight Upborne with indefatigable wings Over the vast abrupt, ere he arrive The happy isle.
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