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.
Catastrophic
(Cat`a*stroph"ic) a. Of a pertaining to a catastrophe. B. Powell.
Catastrophism
(Ca*tas"tro*phism) n. (Geol.) The doctrine that the geological changes in the earth's
crust have been caused by the sudden action of violent physical causes; — opposed to the doctrine of
uniformism.
