book burning meaning: definition, quotations

book burning

nounalso spelled book-burning

Literally A mass burning of books, intended as a form of political and/or religious censorship.

Broadly, Idiomatic Any mass destruction, removal, or recalling of books, motion pictures, broadcasts, or electronic works as a form of censorship, especially motivated by religious or political objections to the material.

Exhuming McCarthy (meet me at the book burning, meet me at the book burning)1987, “Exhuming McCarthy”, in Document (R.E.M. No. 5), performed by R.E.M.:

Synonyms: bibliocide

book-burning

noun

The practice of destroying books by fire because of moral, religious or political objections to the material they contain.

An event where books are burned.

[…] only a month after 75 students there held a public bookburning of their student handbok for its gay content.1981 February 14, Joanne Brown, “Feminist Starts Uproar By Putting Up Sticker”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 29, page 3:

Derived terms: book-burner
Related terms: auto da fe

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — authors: page histories for book burning and book-burning.