- cas|cade
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–n.1. a) a small, steep waterfall: »
Cascades are often of great height.
b) Figurative. a torrent: »She burst into a cascade of words (New Yorker).
2. anything like this: a) loose, descending folds of lace or similar material: »Her dress had a cascade of ruffles down the front.
b) flowers arranged to fall in a loose, descending manner. c) a kind of firework simulating a waterfall: »Roman candles, Catherine wheels, and cascades.
3. a series of pieces of apparatus, such as fluid containers, electric cells, circuits, condensers, electronic tubes, and the like, serving to continue or develop a process.4. a series of reactions in which one causes or produces another, for example the reactions that occur when one atomic particle displaces other atomic particles from a nucleus with which it has collided. These particles then strike others, causing further displacements at progressively lower energy levels.–v.i.to fall, pour, or flow in a cascade: »The water cascaded off the roof in the thunderstorm. Many new buildings are girdled with safety nets to protect passers-by from cascading bricks and plaster (Time).
–v.t.to cause to fall, pour, or flow in a cascade: a) to pass through a series of similar pieces of apparatus. b) to arrange or connect (pieces of apparatus) so that one feeds into the next.╂[< French cascade < Italian cascata, ultimately < Latin cāsus a falling < cadere to fall]
Useful english dictionary. 2012.
