a. Pros. [ad. late L. catalēctic-us, a. Gr. καταληκτικός leaving off, incomplete, f. κατα-λήγειν to leave off, stop. Cf. F. catalectique.] Of a verse: Incomplete in its syllables; wanting a syllable in the last foot.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (Arb.), 142. The Greekes and Latines vsed verses in the odde sillable of two sortes, which they called Catalecticke and Acatalecticke … the catalectik or maymed verse.
1883. H. M. Kennedy, trans. Ten Brink’s E. E. Lit., 155. The catalectic tetrameter, well known to antique poetry.
