English Dictionary: Catastrophe | by the DICT Development Group |
2 results for Catastrophe | |
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: | |
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From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
Catastrophe \Ca*tas"tro*phe\, n. [L. catastropha, Gr. [?], fr. [?] to turn up and down, to overturn; kata` down + [?] to turn.] 1. An event producing a subversion of the order or system of things; a final event, usually of a calamitous or disastrous nature; hence, sudden calamity; great misfortune. The strange catastrophe of affairs now at London. --Bp. Burnet. The most horrible and portentous catastrophe that nature ever yet saw. --Woodward. 2. The final event in a romance or a dramatic piece; a denouement, as a death in a tragedy, or a marriage in a comedy. 3. (Geol.) A violent and widely extended change in the surface of the earth, as, an elevation or subsidence of some part of it, effected by internal causes. --Whewell. |