Wiktionary

crater

See also: cratur, craytur, craythur, Crater, cráter, and cràter

EnglishEdit

Etymology 1Edit

First coined 1613, from Latin crātēr (“basin”), from Ancient Greek κρᾱτήρ (krātḗr, “mixing-bowl, wassail-bowl”).

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

crater (plural craters)

  1. (astronomy) A hemispherical pit created by the impact of a meteorite or other object. [from 1831]
    Synonym: astrobleme
  2. (geology) The basin-like opening or mouth of a volcano, through which the chief eruption comes; similarly, the mouth of a geyser, about which a cone of silica is often built up. [from 1610s]
  3. (informal) The pit left by the explosion of a mine or bomb. [from 1839]
  4. (informal, by extension) Any large, roughly circular depression or hole.
  5. (historical) Alternative spelling of krater (“vessel for mixing water and wine”)
    • 1941, Louis MacNeice, The March of the 10,000:
      The people of those parts lived in underground houses - more of dug-outs - along with their goats and sheep and they had great craters full of wine, barley-wine, that they drank through reeds.
HyponymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
See alsoEdit
TranslationsEdit

ReferencesEdit

VerbEdit

crater (third-person singular simple present craters, present participle cratering, simple past and past participle cratered)

  1. To form craters in a surface (of a planet or moon)
  2. To collapse catastrophically; to become devastated or completely destroyed.
    Synonyms: implode, hollow out
    The economy is about to crater. -- Attributed by David Letterman to Sen. John McCain. NYTimes blog
  3. (snowboarding) To crash or fall.
    He cratered into that snow bank about five seconds after his first lesson.

Etymology 2Edit

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

crater (plural craters)

  1. (Scotland, Ireland) Alternative form of creature.
    • 1843, William Hamilton Maxwell, Wild Sports of the West: With Legendary Tales, and Local Sketches, R. Bentley, page 77:
      I then had the two best tarriers beneath the canopy; this poor crater is their daughter," and he patted the dog's head affectionately.
    • 1772, David Garrick, The Irish Widow, published 1859, page 611:
      She is a charming crater; I would venture to say that, if I was not her father.
    • 1872, Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenwood Tree
      Then why not stop for fellow-craters -- going to thy own father's house too, as we be, and knowen us so well?
Usage notesEdit

This term is still commonly used in speech but rarely appears in modern writing.

AnagramsEdit

LatinEdit

 
crātēr

Alternative formsEdit

EtymologyEdit

Borrowed from Ancient Greek κρᾱτήρ (krātḗr, “mixingbowl, wassail-bowl”), from κεράννυμι (keránnumi, “to mix, to mingle, to blend”)

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

crātēr m (genitive crātēris or crātēros); third declension

  1. A basin or bowl for water or for mixing.
  2. The opening of a volcano.

DeclensionEdit

Third-declension noun (non-Greek-type or Greek-type, normal variant).

Case Singular Plural
Nominative crātēr crātērēs
crātēres
Genitive crātēris
crātēros 		crātērum
Dative crātērī crātēribus
Accusative crātērem
crātēra 		crātērēs
crātēras
Ablative crātēre crātēribus
Vocative crātēr crātērēs
crātēres

DescendantsEdit

ReferencesEdit

  • crater in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • crater in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • crater in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • crater in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly
  • crater in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
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