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disaster

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Disaster

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle French desastre, from Italian disastro, from dis- + astro (“star”), from Latin astrum (“star”), from Ancient Greek ἄστρον (ástron, “star”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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disaster (countable and uncountable, plural disasters)

  1. An unexpected natural or man-made catastrophe of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life or sometimes permanent change to the natural environment.
    People would suffer disasters when society's morality degenerates.
    • 2013 June 29, “High and wet”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28:
      Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. The early, intense onset of the monsoon on June 14th swelled rivers, washing away roads, bridges, hotels and even whole villages. Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.
  2. An unfortunate or unpleasant occurrence, especially one resulting from an accident or something going wrong.
    • 1810, Jack and Jill, and old Dame Gill, York: J. Kendrew, page 4:
      Then Jill came in,
      And she did grin,
      To see Jack's paper plaster;
      Her mother whipt her,
      Across her knee,
      For laughing at Jack's disaster.
    • 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
      And no use for anyone to tell Charles that this was because the Family was in mourning for Mr Granville Darracott […]: Charles might only have been second footman at Darracott Place for a couple of months when that disaster occurred, but no one could gammon him into thinking that my lord cared a spangle for his heir.
    • 2003, The Devil Wears Prada:
      A nod means good, two nods; very good. And then there's the pursing of the lips: disaster.
  3. An wholly unsatisfactory result caused by something going wrong or being done poorly; a flop or failure.
    the cake was a disaster.
  4. A skateboard trick involving a 180-degree ollie, landing on the center of the board with the front trucks facing towards the ramp and the back trucks over the lip. The skater then leans forwards to return in the ramp.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Anagrams

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