Catalectic describes a metrical line that is missing one or more syllables at the end, usually the final unstressed syllable that the pattern would normally expect. In English verse, the term is often used for trochaic or dactylic lines that end abruptly on a stressed beat. The opposite is acatalectic, a line with its full meter completed.
Example
THUNDER crashes through the night
Falling, dark and out of sight
Related Definitions
[adj] (verse) metrically incomplete; especially lacking one or more syllables in the final metrical foot