Word Finder - disaster

definition

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.

example

People would suffer disasters when society's morality degenerates.

definition

An unforeseen event causing great loss, upset or unpleasantness of whatever kind.

The events which led to this disaster may be briefly told.

She froze when she saw the disaster that was her apartment.

His bond to Katie tempered what was otherwise a disaster of epic proportions.

Darian's mind was like a disaster scene after a hurricane.

His chief fault is his overweening haughtiness, due to an over-exalted opinion of his position, which leads him to insult Chryses and Achilles, thereby bringing great disaster upon the Greeks.

After the disaster at Flodden he was completely absorbed in public business.

Last night was a disaster.

Disaster had come upon the north, and the plain of Jezreel saw the total defeat of the king and the rout of his army.

A disaster was averted by the marquess of Santa Cruz, who brought up the reserve.

This defeat is coupled by Tacitus with the disaster of Varus, but it was disgraceful rather than dangerous.

The disaster became the great epoch-making event for Jewish history and literature.

He looked around in disapproval at the disaster that remained of the new gym.

The result was a great disaster, and Alexander had recourse to the old quibble of the Delphic oracle to Croesus for an explanation.

When he saw Mack and heard the details of his disaster he understood that half the campaign was lost, understood all the difficulties of the Russian army's position, and vividly imagined what awaited it and the part he would have to play.

It was in vain that the heroic grand master, Henry of Plauen (1410-1413) sought to stem the tide of disaster; he was deposed by the chapter of the Order for his pains.

Several hours later, just as evening set in, she entered the disaster that was her apartment.

In the last months of his life, under the influence of a great national disaster, the conscientious, persistent autocrat began to suspect that his system was a mistake, but he still clung to it obstinately.

Their opportunity came with the disaster which befell the Roman army under Valerian (q.v.) at Edessa, a disaster, says ' The full text, both Greek and Palmyrene, with an English translation, is given in NSI, pp. 313-340.

In spite of the disaster of her revelation, a wave of relief passed over me.

Upon news of this disaster Phocis, Locris and Euboea revolted, and the Megarians massacred their Athenian garrison, while a Spartan army penetrated into Attica as far as Eleusis.

So, on the one hand, the year of the disaster sees the death of the Israelite king, and Amaziah survives for fifteen years, while, on the other, twenty-seven years elapse between the battle and the accession of Uzziah, the next king of Judah.'

The disaster which aroused Nehemiah's grief was scarcely the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., but a more recent one, and it has been conjectured that it followed the work of Ezra (in b above).

And she recalled in all its detail the night at Bald Hills before he had the last stroke, when with a foreboding of disaster she had remained at home against his will.

It was the general disaster produced by the speculative policy of his former guardians which first called forth his sterling qualities and hardened him into a premature manhood.

In 1572 Louis, not deterred by previous disaster, raised a small force in France, and, suddenly entering Hainaut, captured Mons (May 23).

In a subsequent battle he retrieved this disaster, and after a long blockade reduced the town itself.

The latter, though leader of the Right, had long been intriguing with Cavallotti, leader of the Extreme Left, to overthrow Crispi, but without the disaster of Adowa his plan would scarcely have succeeded.

Ending in a military disaster and a diplomatic humiliation, it had failed to attain even the narrow object for which it had been created.

The canonical history has allowed only one great destruction of Jerusalem, and the disaster of 586 B.C. became the type for similar disasters, but how many there were criticism can scarcely decide.'

Mahratta elders hence uttered predictions of military disaster which were in the end more than fulfilled.

And I will knock the nonsense out of anybody"-- but probably realizing that he was shouting at Bezukhov who so far was not guilty of anything, he added, taking Pierre's hand in a friendly manner, "We are on the eve of a public disaster and I haven't time to be polite to everybody who has business with me.

She was the one who caused this disaster.

In Italy the disaster of Dogali produced consternation, and caused the fall of the Depretis-Robilant cabinet.

Darian is a disaster.

That's what their marriage was right now – a disaster.

This untoward disaster led to the abandonment of the expedition, which forthwith returned to Spain, bringing with them the news of the discovery of a fresh-water sea.

Hawkins declared his object to be discovery and the survey of unknown lands, and his voyage, though terminating in disaster, bore good fruit.

The surrender of the capital, where he had centralized all the governing powers, was a grave disaster.

To the difficulties caused by disaster, depopulation and maladministration there was added the danger of foreign invasion when war broke out in Europe between Francis I.

She might, however, " sense " the disaster, have a premonition.

A plate of half-finished food sat on the coffee table, and the kitchen was a disaster.

A fruitful cause of disaster has been the practice of issuing agricultural and industrial loans under government authorization.

This naturally caused great dissatisfaction, and more than once resulted in irreparable disaster.

On the 27th of September 1814, after the disaster of Bladensburg and the capture of Washington by the British, he was appointed secretary of war to succeed General John Armstrong, and discharged the duties of this office, in addition to those of the state department, until March 1815.

Thus the Magyars were saddled with two rival kings with equally valid titles, which proved an even worse disaster than the Mohacs catastrophe; for in most of the counties of the unhappy kingdom desperadoes of every description plundered the estates of the gentry, and oppressed the common people, under the pretext that they were fighting the battles of the contending monarchs.

Of a far inferior character was the monotonous Mohdcsi veszedelem (Disaster of Mohacs),in 13 cantos, produced two years afterwards at Vienna by Baron Liszti.

Among the ten thousand Scottish dead were all the leading men in the kingdom of Scotland, and there was no family of importance that had not lost a member in this great disaster.

In the meantime, the Zulu forces which threatened the Transvaal had been turned against the British, and the disaster of Isandhlwana occurred.

Ten days previous to the disaster at Majuba Sir Evelyn Wood had arrived at Newcastle with reinforcements.

Negotiations had been opened with the Boers before the attack on Majuba and the British cabinet refused to allow that disaster to influence their action.