/keuh tab"euh sis/ , n. , pl. katabases /-seez'/ .
1. a march from the interior of a country to the coast, as that of the 10,000 Greeks after their defeat and the death of Cyrus the Younger at Cunaxa.
2. a retreat, esp. a military retreat. Cf. anabasis .
[ 1830-40; katábasis a going down, descent, equiv. to kataba- (s. of katabaínein to go down) + -sis -SIS. See KATA-, BASIS ]