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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. Buret. The most horrible and portentous catastrophe that nature ever yet saw. Woodward.

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.

Colloq.] "You catch me up so very short." Dickens. -- To catch up, to snatch; to take up suddenly.

The kiling of another in self-defense upon a sudden and unpremeditated encounter. See Chaud-Medley.

The act of rushing upon, or towards, an enemy; a sudden onset or attack, as of troops, esp. cavalry; hence, the signal for attack; as, to sound the charge. Never, in any other war afore, gave the Romans a hotter charge upon the enemies. Holland. The charge of the light brigade. Tennyson.

To put a sudden restraint upon; to stop temporarily; to hinder; to repress; to curb. So many clogs to check and retard the headlong course of violence and oppression. Burke.

To produce, by sudden cooling, a change of crystallization at or near the surface of, so as to increase the hardness; said of cast iron.

Irritation of the passions; anger; wrath. He is rash and very sudden in choler. Shak.

To do something suddenly with an unexpected motion; to catch or attempt to seize. Out of greediness to get both, he chops at the shadow, and loses the substance. L'Estrange.

Shifting or changing suddenly, as the wind; also, having tumbling waves dashing against each other; as, a chopping sea.

A sudden, small noise.

To make a sudden, sharp noise, or a succesion of such noises, as by striking an object, or by collision of parts; to rattle; to click. We heard Mr.Hodson's whip clacking on the ahoulders of the poor little wretches. Thackeray.

hout due formality. (b) To make or contrive hastily. [Obs.] "Was ever match clapped up so suddenly" Shak.

ing, a mode of obtaining an impression from a die or woodcut, or the like, by striking it suddenly upon metal which has been fused and is just becoming solid; also, the casting so obtained.

A kind of articulation used by the natives of Southern Africa, consisting in a sudden withdrawal of the end or some other portion of the tongue from a part of the mouth with which it is in contact, whereby a sharp, clicking sound is produced. The sounds are four in number, and are called cerebral, palatal, dental, and…

A series of muscular contractions due to sudden stretching of the muscle, -- a sign of certain neuropathies.

A sudden copious rainfall, as the whole cloud had been precipitated at once.

To fall together suddenly, as the sides of a hollow vessel; to close by falling or shrinking together; to have the sides or parts of (a thing) fall in together, or be crushed in together; as, a flue in the boiler of a steam engine sometimes collapses. A balloon collapses when the gas escapes from it. Maunder.…

duty of political friendship, without commiting the honor of your sovereign. Junius. Any sudden assent to the proposal . . . might possibly be considered as committing the faith of the United States. Marshall.

A sudden encounter; a collision; a shock; -- said of things. [Obs.] From these laws may be deduced the rules of the congresses and reflections of two bodies. Cheyne.