cascade

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[edit] English

WOTD - 6 September 2007    

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

[edit] Etymology

French cascade, from Italian cascata, from cascare (“to fall”)

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Noun

cascade (plural cascades)

  1. A waterfall or series of small waterfalls.
    Now murm'ring soft, now roaring in cascade. -Cawper
  2. (figuratively) A stream or sequence of a thing or things occurring as if falling like a cascade.
    The rise in serotonin levels sets off a cascade of chemical events — Richard M. Restak, The Secret Life of the Brain, Joseph Henry Press, 2001
  3. A series of electrical (or other types of) components, the output of any one being connected to the input of the next; See also daisy chain
  4. (juggling) A pattern typically performed with an odd number of props, where each prop is caught by the opposite hand.
  5. (Internet) A sequence of absurd short messages posted to a newsgroup by different authors, each one responding to the most recent message and quoting the entire sequence to that point (with ever-increasing indentation).
    • 1993, "e.j.barker", Disassociation (on Internet newsgroup alt.slack)
      Don't you hate cascades? I hate cascades!
    • 1999, "Anonymous", CYBERLIAR SCAVENGER HUNT 1999 (on Internet newsgroup alt.test)
      Spark a usenet cascade of no less than 300 replies.
    • 2004, "swt", ARRR! (on Internet newsgroup alt.religion.kibology)
      Anyway. I didn't mean to say that everyone who posts URLs is bad and wrong and should lose their breathing privileges. Just that I was getting weary of look-at-this-link posts, sort of like some people get sick of cascades.

[edit] Derived terms

[edit] Translations

waterfall
sequence of events
series of electric components

[edit] Verb

cascade (third-person singular simple present cascades, present participle cascading, simple past and past participle cascaded)

  1. (intransitive) To fall as a waterfall or series of small waterfalls.
  2. (transitive) To arrange in a stepped series like a waterfall.
    • 2001, Greg M Perry, Sams teach yourself Microsoft Windows XP in 24 hours
      No matter how you tile or cascade the windows, each window's Minimize, Maximize, and Restore buttons work as usual.
  3. To occur as a causal sequence.
  4. (archaic) (slang) To vomit.

[edit] Translations

To fall as a waterfall or series of small waterfalls
To arrange in a stepped series like a waterfall
To occur as a causal sequence
To vomit

[edit] Anagrams

[edit] French

[edit] Etymology

From Italian cascata, from cascare (“to fall”)

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Noun

cascade f. (plural cascades)

  1. cascade (waterfall)
  2. cascade (series of event)
  3. (juggling) cascade
  4. A stunt performed for cinematic imitation or entertainment.

[edit] Verb

cascade

  1. first-person singular present indicative of cascader
  2. third-person singular present indicative of cascader
  3. first-person singular present subjunctive of cascader
  4. third-person singular present subjunctive of cascader
  5. second-person singular imperative of cascader

[edit] Anagrams

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