from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. In the Bible, the god of the Canaanites and Phoenicians to whom children were sacrificed.
- n. Something possessing the power to exact severe sacrifice.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- proper n. A taxonomic genus within the subfamily Amphibolurinae.
- proper n. An ancient Ammonite deity worshiped by the Canaanites, Phoenician and related cultures in North Africa and the Levant.
- proper n. A person or thing demanding or requiring a very costly sacrifice.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- proper n. The fire god of the Ammonites in Canaan, to whom human sacrifices were offered; Molech. Also applied figuratively.
- proper n. A spiny Australian lizard (Moloch horridus). The horns on the head and numerous spines on the body give it a most formidable appearance.
After decades of efficacious and insidious propaganda, the Israeli Moloch is finally displaying its true colours for all the world to see.
Found again, the Opus Angelorum faction send seraphim to destroy it, while the demon Moloch is plotting to other ends.
How to transform this Moloch from a tyrannous master to a helpful, submissive friend, that was the problem which seemed to cry out for solution above all others.
As the word Moloch (A.V. Molech) means king, it is difficult in several places of the Old Testament to determine whether it should be considered as the proper name of a deity or as a simple appellative.
It was in this dreary solitude that the Jews immolated their children to their god, whom they then called Moloch; for we have observed, that they always bestowed a foreign name on their god.
For example, Solomon built a temple to something called Moloch, apparently one of the naughty elder gods, and he killed his brother because “wickedness” was found inside him.
The god or idol of the Ammonites, otherwise called Moloch, and Melech: which in Hebrew signifies a king, and Melchom their king.
The motives that propelled each of the three to the altar were as diverse as their separate natures, but the sacrifice that each offered to the Moloch was the same -- their souls.
But it's not until Rorschach checks up on one of his old enemies, Edgar Jacobi (Matt Frewer), once known as Moloch the Mystic, that he starts to pick up the trail that will lead him to the terrible truth.
Other inspirations for the illustrations came from jazz, Greek mythology (especially the "Moloch" figure, which has a bull's head and human's body) and from William Blake, who illustrated his own poems.