Definition of: cascade

(kas·kād′) noun
1. A fall of water over steeply slanting rocks, or one of a series of such falls.
2. Anything resembling a waterfall, as the lace trimming of a dress.
3. Chem. A connection in series of two or more electrolytic cells or tanks so arranged as to produce a flow of the electrolyte from higher to lower levels.
4. Physics A successive operation, as cooling a gas by utilizing the effect of a previously expanded gas.
—v.i. ·cad·ed, ·cad·ing To fall in the form of a waterfall; form cascades. [<F <Ital. cascata <cascare fall <L cadere]