Also 7 cascata, cascate, caskade. [a. F. cascade, ad. It. cascata fall, f. cascare to fall: see -ADE.]
1. A waterfall. a. Usually, a small waterfall; esp. one of a series of small falls, formed by water in its descent over rocks, or in the artificial works of the kind introduced in landscape gardening.
1641. Evelyn, Diary, 8 Oct. Divers springs of water, artificial Cascades.
1670. Lassels, Voy. Italy, II. 315. The fountains, the Cascatas, the Grottas, the Girandolas, and the other rare water works.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, I. 11. The underwork of an artificial cascade.
1808. Pike, Sources Mississ., I. App. 50. Springs which form small cascades as they tumble over the cliffs.
1873. G. C. Davies, Mount. & Mere, xiii. 101. For a quarter of a mile the water comes down in a series of small cascades.
† b. Formerly in a wider sense.
1671. Phil. Trans., VI. 2151. On this side of the Cascata’s of the Nile.
1673. Ray, Journ. Low C., 105. A great Cascate or Catarract of the river Rhene.
1684. T. Burnet, Th. Earth, I. 99. Great spouts or caskades of water.
1718. Rowe, Ode King’s Birth-D., vi. Volga tumbling in Cascades.
2. transf. and fig.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 2. 20. The narrow gorge which holds the ice cascade in its jaws.
1869. Phillips, Vesuvius, iii. 70. Forming a most beautiful and uncommon cascade [of red-hot ashes, etc.].
1878. Geo. Eliot, Coll. Breakf. P., 389. Anti-social force that sweeps you down The world in one cascade of molecules.
b. A pyrotechnic device imitating a fall of water.
c. A loose wavy fall or ruffle of lace, etc.
1882. World, 21 June, 18/1. [The jacket] had a sailor collar … and cascade of lace down the front.
1885. New York Weekly Sun, 13 May, 6/5. Morning dresses and elegant house toilets are made dressy with profuse use of ribbons in bows, flots, cascades, panels, and floating loops and ends.
d. Electr. Charge by cascade: a method of charging a series of insulated Leyden jars by connecting the outer coating of the first with the knob of the next, and so on; the last outer coating being connected with the ground.
1870. R. Ferguson, Electr., 89. Called the charge by cascade.
3. Comb., as cascade-garden.
a. 1667. Cowley, Greatness (1684), 123. Nor vast Parks, nor Fountain, or Cascade-Gardens.
