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CATASTROPHE
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
An event resulting in great loss and misfortune
Example:
the earthquake was a disaster
Synonyms:
calamity; cataclysm; catastrophe; disaster; tragedy
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("catastrophe" is a kind of...):
bad luck; misfortune (unnecessary and unforeseen trouble resulting from an unfortunate event)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "catastrophe"):
act of God; force majeure; inevitable accident; unavoidable casualty; vis major (a natural and unavoidable catastrophe that interrupts the expected course of events)
apocalypse (a cosmic cataclysm in which God destroys the ruling powers of evil)
famine (a severe shortage of food (as through crop failure) resulting in violent hunger and starvation and death)
kiss of death (something that is ruinous)
meltdown (a disaster comparable to a nuclear meltdown)
plague (any large scale calamity (especially when thought to be sent by God))
visitation (any disaster or catastrophe)
tidal wave (an unusual (and often destructive) rise of water along the seashore caused by a storm or a combination of wind and high tide)
tsunami (a cataclysm resulting from a destructive sea wave caused by an earthquake or volcanic eruption)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A sudden violent change in the earth's surface
Synonyms:
cataclysm; catastrophe
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural phenomena
Hypernyms ("catastrophe" is a kind of...):
geological phenomenon (a natural phenomenon involving the structure or composition of the earth)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "catastrophe"):
nuclear winter (a long period of darkness and extreme cold that scientists predict would follow a full-scale nuclear war; a layer of dust and smoke in the atmosphere would cover the earth and block the rays of the sun; most living organisms would perish)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A state of extreme (usually irremediable) ruin and misfortune
Example:
his policies were a disaster
Synonyms:
catastrophe; disaster
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("catastrophe" is a kind of...):
adversity; hard knocks; hardship (a state of misfortune or affliction)
Context examples:
I took Mr. Micawber aside that same night, and confided to him the task of standing between Mr. Peggotty and intelligence of the late catastrophe.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Bendamustine may differ from other alkylators in that it may be more potent in activating p53-dependent stress pathways and inducing apoptosis; it may induce mitotic catastrophe; and it may activate a base excision DNA repair pathway rather than an alkyltransferase DNA repair mechanism.
(Bendamustine hydrochloride, NCI Thesaurus)
Jo accepted it with a smile, for she had never outgrown her liking for lads, and soon found herself involved in the usual labyrinth of love, mystery, and murder, for the story belonged to that class of light literature in which the passions have a holiday, and when the author's invention fails, a grand catastrophe clears the stage of one half the dramatis personae, leaving the other half to exult over their downfall.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
I could, with great pleasure, enlarge further upon the manners and virtues of this excellent people; but intending in a short time to publish a volume by itself, expressly upon that subject, I refer the reader thither; and, in the mean time, proceed to relate my own sad catastrophe.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
It was the very essence of the unknown; it was the sum of the terrors of the unknown, the one culminating and unthinkable catastrophe that could happen to him, about which he knew nothing and about which he feared everything.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
As to the sad catastrophe itself, it could be canvassed only in one style by a couple of steady, sensible women, whose judgements had to work on ascertained events; and it was perfectly decided that it had been the consequence of much thoughtlessness and much imprudence; that its effects were most alarming, and that it was frightful to think, how long Miss Musgrove's recovery might yet be doubtful, and how liable she would still remain to suffer from the concussion hereafter!
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
The earliest intelligence of the travellers' safe arrival at Antigua, after a favourable voyage, was received; though not before Mrs. Norris had been indulging in very dreadful fears, and trying to make Edmund participate them whenever she could get him alone; and as she depended on being the first person made acquainted with any fatal catastrophe, she had already arranged the manner of breaking it to all the others, when Sir Thomas's assurances of their both being alive and well made it necessary to lay by her agitation and affectionate preparatory speeches for a while.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
They are all part of a rock record that offers the most detailed look yet into the aftermath of the catastrophe that ended the Age of Dinosaurs, said Sean Gulick, a geoscientist at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics.
(Rocks at asteroid impact site record first day of dinosaur extinction, National Science Foundation)
How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form?
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Who could have foreseen such a terrible catastrophe?
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
