01 n. An event producing a subversion of the order or system of things; a final event, usually of a calamitous or disastrous nature; hence, sudde…
-
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.
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.(Geol.)