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.