earth-shatteringadj.

a1859 T. De Quincey Posthumous Wks. (1893) II. 92 No act so thoroughly womanish,..ever yet had a place or rating in the books of Conspiracy, far less was attended..with an equipage of earth-shattering changes.

1937 G. M. Harper Literary Appreciations 66 The subject of greatest interest was the arrival; of several ostriches in England. From the context in which this earth-shattering event is first mentioned, I judge they were brought as a present to King Charles.

1967 Amer. Polit. Sci. Rev. 61 800 Foreign policy commands by far the largest share of the nation's public resources and the consequences of policy are potentially earth-shattering.

1989 I. Taylor George Eliot (1990) iv. 43 In the weeks following her earth-shattering announcement, Mary Ann shuttled between brother and sisters, unsure what she should do next.

2002 New Republic 13 May 38/2 The Internet might provide productivity gains of 0.25 to 0.5 percentage points annually. That is significant but not earth-shattering.

1864 Atlantic Monthly Apr. 511/2 The subterranean fire, which..breaks up ancient landmarks in earth-shattering convulsions.

1917 A. Findlay Treasures of Coal Tar x. 123 This ‘blast’ was small compared with the earth-shattering explosion of four hundred and fifty tons of high explosive.

1995 Palm Beach (Florida) Post (Nexis) 6 Aug. 14 a The light of a thousand suns bursts over the stricken city, followed by vaporizing heat and an earth-shattering blast that is measured at 500 miles an hour.

1979 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 6 Mar. 7/4 Competitions cannot guarantee earth-shatteringly outstanding buildings.

2001 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) July 139/1 He's earth-shatteringly handsome in a slightly surprised way—he can't quite believe when everyone is falling over him.