Also catabothron, katavothron. Pl. -a (-ons). [a. late and mod.Gr. κατάβοθρον, f. κατά down + βόθρος a hole.] A subterranean channel or deep chasm formed by the action of water.
1820. T. S. Hughes, Trav. Sicily, II. xii. 311. A lake whose superfluous waters are carried off by a catabothron or subterranean channel.
1833. Lyell, Princ. Geol., III. 144. The gulphs (katavothrons) of the plain of Tripolitza have swallowed up of late years thousands of human bones.
1846. Grote, Greece, II. viii. II. 596. Tegea and Mantineia—conterminous towns … separated by one of those capricious torrents which only escapes through katabothra.
