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▪ I. crater, n.|ˈkreɪtə(r)|
[a. L. crātēr bowl, basin, aperture of a volcano, a. Gr. κρᾱτήρ bowl, lit. ‘mixer, mixing-vessel’, f. κερα-, κρα- to mix. (In French cratère is late, senses 1 and 2 being admitted by the Academy in 1762, 1798 respectively.)]
‖1. Greek Antiq. ‘A large bowl in which the wine was mixed with water, and from which the cups were filled’ (Liddell & Scott). Also krater.
1730–6Bailey (folio), Crater, a cup or bowl, a goblet. 1774J. Bryant Mythol. II. 236 The crater, or cup. 1857Birch Anc. Pottery (1858) I. 44 A kind of krater was used as a receptacle for the wine or water drawn from the amphoræ. 1866J. B. Rose Virg. Ecl. & Georg. 94 With crater ivy-bound Libations to Lenæus there he sheds. 1935Antiquity IX. 414 The low stems..are more difficult to place, but they resemble the stems of the kraters in the contemporary group from Lakkéthra in Cephallenia. 1950H. L. Lorimer Homer & Monuments ii. 73 Argive Geometric krater of early type from Amathus. 1969R. Tashkent Ambiguous Man viii. 80 The great swords, the daggers, pins, cups, kraters, spears. 1974Times 8 Mar. 9/3 Mr Hecht bought fragments from Mr Sarrafian as a cover for selling fragments of a krater unearthed in Italy and smuggled out for sale to the Metropolitan.
2. a. A bowl- or funnel-shaped hollow at the summit or on the side of a volcano, from which eruption takes place; the mouth of a volcano.
1613Purchas Pilgrimage viii. ix. 657 The Vulcan, Crater, or Mouth whence fire issued, is about halfe a league in Compasse. 1752Phil. Trans. XLVII. 355 The sides..form a concavity, or crater, resembling a truncated cone, with its base uppermost. 1867Whittier Abraham Davenport 19 A dull glow, like that which climbs The crater's sides from the red hell below.
b. A raised bowl-shaped hollow on the surface of the Moon.
1860Emerson Cond. Life, Wealth Wks. (Bohn) II. 349 The mountains and craters in the moon. 1868J. N. Lockyer Elem. Astron. xvi. 94 A view of the crater Copernicus, one of the most prominent objects in the Moon... Outside the crater-wall..many smaller craters..are distinctly visible. 1964Yearbk. Astron. 1965 113 The solution to the old question of whether the lunar craters have a volcanic, meteoritic or some other origin may be near at hand.
‖3. Astron. A southern constellation, situated between Hydra and Leo, west of Corvus.
1658Phillips, Crater..called the bottom of the pitcher in Virgo, it riseth about the sixteenth of the Calends of March. 1890C. A. Young Uranography §38 About the middle of his [Hydra's] length, and just below the hind feet of Leo..we find the little constellation of Crater.
4. Mil. The excavation or cavity formed by the explosion of a mine; the funnel; also, the cavity formed by the explosion of a shell. Also attrib.
1839Penny Cycl. XV. 233/2 The dimensions of the crater or funnel formed by the explosion depend on the amount of the charge. Ibid., The ratio between the diameter of the crater and the length of the line of least resistance. 1855E. B. Hamley Story Campaign Sebastopol xxvii. 282 A magazine..had been blown up by a shell—..no serious damage was done by this explosion, which left..a vast crater like a quarry. 1914Scotsman 26 Dec. 8 Seamed with dug⁓outs, burrows, trenches,..and pitted with craters. 1919P. Bewsher Green Balls 200, I can see dotted around the fields the great craters of the shell-holes. 1919G. K. Rose 2/4th Oxf. & Bucks Lt. Infty. ii. 24 The Somme ‘craterfield’. 1926Encycl. Brit. Suppl. I. 228/2 A 6-in. howitzer mine shell..produces a cylindrical crater about four yards across and 10 ft. deep.
5. Electr. The cavity formed in the positive carbon of an arc light in the course of combustion.
1892S. Thompson in Electr. Engineer 16 Sept. 281/2 At the surface of the positive electrode or crater.
6. Comb., as crater-formed, crater-like adjs., crater-rim, crater-wall. crater-lake, a lake formed by the collection of water in the crater of an extinct volcano.
1830Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 387 The..crater-like configuration. 1869Phillips Vesuv. i. 6 Down the steep crater-walls. 1874Lubbock Wild Flowers i. 6 Each leaflet produces honey in a crater-formed gland. 1879Encycl. Brit. X. 250/1 In some cases, where ancient crater-lakes or internal reservoirs have been shaken by repeated detonations, and finally disrupted, the mud which has thus been produced issues at once from the mountain. 1885A. Geikie Text-book Geol. (ed. 2) iii. i. 224 Explosion lakes (Crater-lakes) of this kind occur in districts of extinct volcanoes. 1959Chambers's Encycl. VIII. 307/2 Crater-lakes occupy the craters of extinct or dormant volcanoes (e.g. the Maare of the Eifel district).
Hence craterine |ˈkreɪtəraɪn| a., = crateral. ˈcraterkin, a little crater. ˈcraterless a., without a crater. ˈcraterlet, a small crater; esp. applied to the smaller craters on the moon. ˈcraterous a., of the nature of a crater, crater-like.
1888Harper's Mag. Sept. 629 The harbor..with its hills, seems of craterine origin. 1888Pall Mall G. 12 Sept. 2/2 There..was a small crater twenty feet wide..The bottom of the craterkin was entirely closed. 1890R. S. Ball Story of Heavens 67 Those comparatively craterless peaks. 1881Eng. Mechanic 27 May 281/3 Close along this rill [on the moon]..are three craterlets. 1883Piazzi Smith in Nature XXVII. 315 The craterlet which forms the tip-top of the Peak. 1856Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh viii. 341 That June day Too deeply sunk in craterous sunsets now For you or me to dig it up.
▪ II. crater, v.
[f. the n.]
a. intr. To form a crater or hollow.
b. trans. To obstruct or destroy (a road or terrain) by craters formed by mines or mine shells. So ˈcratered ppl. a. Also fig.
1884Cassell's Fam. Mag. 576/1 This arrangement is found to give a better light than the solid rod, which is apt to ‘crater’ or become hollow in its burning end. Compound rods..do not crater in this way. 1917‘Contact’ Airman's Outings 134 Tens of thousands of shells had pocked the dirty soil, scores of mine explosions had cratered it. 1921Times Lit. Suppl. 8 Sept. 570/4 The Second [German Army] could not get beyond Albert on account of difficulties in the cratered area. 1922Glasgow Herald 22 Mar. 10 A number of roads had been cratered and a certain number of bridges blown up. 1925H. Acton in Oxf. Poetry 2 Our lives are cratered with great pocks and scabs. 1941Illustr. London News CXCVIII. 223 (caption) Laying land-mines to delay advancing troops: cratering a road surface for depth-charge. 1943C. Day Lewis Word over All 21 Yet words there must be, wept on the cratered present. |