Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Catastrophe
Ca-tas′tro-phe
,Noun.
[L.
catastropha
, Gr. [GREEK], fr. [GREEK] to turn up and down, to overturn; κατά
down + [GREEK] 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.
Webster 1828 Edition
Catastrophe
CATASTROPHE
,Definition 2024
catastrophë
catastrophë
See also: catastrophe and catastrophé
English
Noun
catastrophë (plural catastrophes or catastrophës)
- (now rare) Alternative spelling of catastrophe
- 1823, William Mitford, The History of Greece, pages 42{1} and 315{2}:
- {1} Homer adverts in two lines, strongly marked by that power, which he singularly possessed, of expressing the deepest pathetic in the simplest terms, to the catastrophë of the family of Œneus, king of the country, as to a story well known among his contemporaries.
- {2} While then the Athenian arms pressed upon the Syracusans and their allies, the Egestans were relieved; but, with the catastrophë of the Athenian forces, followed by the downfal of the influence of Hermocrates, their situation became even more perilous than before; inasmuch as the exasperation of their enemies was increased, the hope and liberality from Syracuse was lessened, and all prospect of a protecting power anywhere among the Grecian states was done away.
- 1823, William Mitford, The History of Greece, pages 42{1} and 315{2}: