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  1. katabatic love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Of or relating to a cold flow of air traveling downward: a katabatic wind.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. meteorology, of airflow Downslope on a mountainside.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. of an air current or wind; moving downward or down a slope because of cooling especially at night

Etymologies

  1. From the Ancient Greek κατάβασις (katábasis, "descent") (Wiktionary)
  2. Greek katabatikos, pertaining to descent, from katabatos, descending : kata-, cata- + batos, going; see gwā- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “He explained that this area had a permanent offshore gale called the katabatic—Greek for flowing downhill.”

    Simon & Schuster: Deception Point

  • “He explained that this area had a permanent offshore gale called the katabatic – Greek for flowing downhill.”

    Deception Point

  • “These are referred to as katabatic winds and are narrow, strong regions of wind blowing from the cold mountain plateau of Greenland down the steep mountainsides and out over the ocean, causing large waves.”

    Space Business and Industry News at SpaceMart.com

  • “The winds, called katabatic winds, form as air slides down from the high plateau of Antarctica's interior and funnels into small drainages near the coast.”

    Top Headlines at CU Boulder

  • “As this extremely cold, dense air sinks, it can get funneled through rugged channels in the ice and rock to become ferocious, deadly gusts called katabatic winds that howl toward the coast of Antarctica.”

    Livescience.com

  • “Personally I think 'katabatic' would be a good name for a cat ...”

    August 11th, 2006

  • “It's on the receiving end of "katabatic" winds flowing virtually uninterrupted down the ice fields to the sea from the center of the continent.”

    Wired: Wind Power From Way, Way Down

  • “Array them on the the sides of mountains and along the valleys to create katabatic tunnels and magnify the force and duration of the winds.”

    Glacier-Sailing with the Katabatic Winds

  • “Spiraling corkscrew-like from the zenith of the Matterhorn down to its base, they'll billow in the katabatic winds like Tibetan prayer rags, awaiting the passing of one landscape and the coming of another.”

    Glacier-Sailing with the Katabatic Winds

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‘katabatic’ has been looked up 1404 times, loved by 1 person, added to 30 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 17.