"catastrophic backtracking" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_links": [
    [
      "catastrophic",
      "catastrophic#English"
    ],
    [
      "backtracking",
      "backtracking#English"
    ]
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "catastrophic",
        "3": "backtracking"
      },
      "expansion": "catastrophic + backtracking",
      "name": "com"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From catastrophic + backtracking.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "catastrophic backtracking (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Computer science",
          "orig": "en:Computer science",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Regular expressions",
          "orig": "en:Regular expressions",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An excessively large amount of backtracking that occurs with certain regular expressions, due to an exponentially large number of possible matching paths to check."
      ],
      "id": "en-catastrophic_backtracking-en-noun-5vp-6Q20",
      "links": [
        [
          "computer science",
          "computer science"
        ],
        [
          "regular expression",
          "regular expression"
        ],
        [
          "excessive",
          "excessive"
        ],
        [
          "backtracking",
          "backtracking"
        ],
        [
          "exponential",
          "exponential"
        ],
        [
          "path",
          "path"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "regular expressions",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(computer science, regular expressions) An excessively large amount of backtracking that occurs with certain regular expressions, due to an exponentially large number of possible matching paths to check."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "runaway backtracking"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computer",
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "science",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "catastrophic backtracking"
}

{
  "etymology_links": [
    [
      "catastrophic",
      "catastrophic#English"
    ],
    [
      "backtracking",
      "backtracking#English"
    ]
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "catastrophic",
        "3": "backtracking"
      },
      "expansion": "catastrophic + backtracking",
      "name": "com"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From catastrophic + backtracking.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "catastrophic backtracking (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English compound terms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:Computer science",
        "en:Regular expressions"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An excessively large amount of backtracking that occurs with certain regular expressions, due to an exponentially large number of possible matching paths to check."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "computer science",
          "computer science"
        ],
        [
          "regular expression",
          "regular expression"
        ],
        [
          "excessive",
          "excessive"
        ],
        [
          "backtracking",
          "backtracking"
        ],
        [
          "exponential",
          "exponential"
        ],
        [
          "path",
          "path"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "regular expressions",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(computer science, regular expressions) An excessively large amount of backtracking that occurs with certain regular expressions, due to an exponentially large number of possible matching paths to check."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "runaway backtracking"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computer",
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "science",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "catastrophic backtracking"
}