cratern.
/ˈkreɪtə/, U.S. /ˈkreɪdər/ 1. Ancient Greek History. ‘A large bowl in which the wine was mixed with water, and from which the cups were filled’ (Liddell & Scott). Also krater.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > drink > containers for drink > [noun] > bowl
punch-pot1600
bowl of punch1659
punchbowl1675
temperer1675
crater1730
jorum1730
lebes1851
calyx crater1896
1730 N. Bailey et al. Dictionarium Britannicum Crater, a cup or bowl, a goblet.
1774 J. Bryant New Syst. II. 236 The crater, or cup.
1857 S. Birch Hist. Anc. Pottery (1858) I. 44 A kind of krater was used as a receptacle for the wine or water drawn from the amphoræ.
1866 J. B. Rose tr. Virgil Eclogues & Georgics 94 With crater ivy-bound Libations to Lenæus there he sheds.
1935 Antiquity 9 414 The low stems..are more difficult to place, but they resemble the stems of the kraters in the contemporary group from Lakkéthra in Cephallenia.
1950 H. L. Lorimer Homer & Monuments ii. 73 Argive Geometric krater of early type from Amathus.
1969 R. Tashkent Ambiguous Man viii. 80 The great swords, the daggers, pins, cups, kraters, spears.
1974 Times 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.
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the world > the earth > land > landscape > low land > hollow or depression > [noun] > crater
mouth1604
crater1613
pit-crater1862
caldera1865
maar1895
1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage viii. ix. 657 The Vulcan, Crater, or Mouth whence fire issued, is about halfe a league in Compasse.
1753 Philos. Trans. 1751–2 (Royal Soc.) 47 355 The sides..form a concavity, or crater, resembling a truncated cone, with its base uppermost.
1867 J. G. Whittier 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.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > planet > primary planet > moon > [noun] > surface of > crater
crater1860
1860 R. W. Emerson Wealth in Conduct of Life (London ed.) 86 The mountains and craters in the moon.
1868 J. N. Lockyer Elem. Lessons 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.
1964 Yearbk. 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. Astronomy. A southern constellation, situated between Hydra and Leo, west of Corvus.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > constellation > Southern constellations > [noun] > Crater
water-pot1546
cup1556
crater1658
1658 E. Phillips New World Eng. Words Crater..called the bottom of the pitcher in Virgo, it riseth about the sixteenth of the Calends of March.
1890 C. A. Young Uranogr. §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. Military. The excavation or cavity formed by the explosion of a mine; the funnel; also, the cavity formed by the explosion of a shell. Also attributive.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > land > landscape > low land > hollow or depression > [noun] > made by bomb
crater1839
crump-hole1914
bomb-crater1920
camouflet1941
1839 Penny Cycl. XV. 233/2 The dimensions of the crater or funnel formed by the explosion depend on the amount of the charge.
1839 Penny Cycl. XV. 233/2 The ratio between the diameter of the crater and the length of the line of least resistance.
1855 E. B. Hamley Story Campaign Sebastopol xxvii. 282 A magazine..had been blown up by a shell... Beyond the loss of life, no serious damage was done by this explosion, which left..a vast crater like a quarry.
1914 Scotsman 26 Dec. 8 Seamed with dug~outs, burrows, trenches,..and pitted with craters.
1919 P. Bewsher Green Balls 200 I can see dotted around the fields the great craters of the shell-holes.
1919 G. K. Rose 2/4th Oxf. & Bucks Light Infantry ii. 24 The Somme ‘craterfield’.
1921 F. W. Bewsher 51st Div. 117 A belt of marshy country, just east of the mine crater.
1926 Encycl. Brit. 239 Each tank was given some saphead, crater post, or communication trench to deal with.
1926 Encycl. Brit. Suppl. I. 228/2 A 6-in. howitzer mine shell..produces a cylindrical crater about four yards across and 10 ft. deep.
5. The cavity formed in the positive carbon of an arc light in the course of combustion.
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the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > electric light > [noun] > charcoal pencil > cavity formed in
crater1892
1892 S. Thompson in Electr. Engineer 16 Sept. 281/2 At the surface of the positive electrode or crater.
Compounds
C1. crater-formed, crater-like adjs., crater-rim, crater-wall.
ΚΠ
1830 C. Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 387 The..crater-like configuration.
1869 J. Phillips Vesuvius i. 6 Down the steep crater-walls.
1874 J. Lubbock Wild Flowers i. 6 Each leaflet produces honey in a crater-formed gland.
C2.
crater-lake n. a lake formed by the collection of water in the crater of an extinct volcano.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > water > lake > [noun] > other types
pene-lake1668
salina1697
slough1714
salt lake1763
bayou1766
lagoon1769
cut-off1773
prairie1820
maar1826
boating lake1834
serpentine1837
soda lake1839
bitter lake1843
stream-lake1867
shott1878
crater-lake1879
playa1885
oxbow lake1887
kettle-hole lake1902
mortlake1902
oxbow1902
seepage lake1934
paternoster lake1942
soda pan1976
1879 Encycl. 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.
1885 A. Geikie Text-bk. Geol. (ed. 2) iii. i. 224 Explosion lakes (Crater-lakes) of this kind occur in districts of extinct volcanoes.
1959 Chambers's Encycl. VIII. 307/2 Crater-lakes occupy the craters of extinct or dormant volcanoes (e.g. the Maare of the Eifel district).
Derivatives
craterine adj. /ˈkreɪtəraɪn/ = crateral adj.
/ˈkreɪtəraɪn/ = crateral adj.ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > land > landscape > low land > hollow or depression > [adjective] > relating to crater
crateriform1830
craterous1856
crateral1860
craterine1888
1888 Harper's Mag. Sept. 629 The harbor..with its hills, seems of craterine origin.
ˈcraterkin n. a little crater.
ΚΠ
1888 Pall Mall Gaz. 12 Sept. 2/2 There..was a small crater twenty feet wide..The bottom of the craterkin was entirely closed.
ˈcraterless adj. without a crater.
ΚΠ
1890 R. S. Ball Story of Heavens 67 Those comparatively craterless peaks.
ˈcraterlet n. a small crater; esp. applied to the smaller craters on the moon.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > planet > primary planet > moon > [noun] > surface of > crater > small
craterlet1881
the world > the earth > land > landscape > low land > hollow or depression > [noun] > crater > small
craterlet1881
1881 Eng. Mechanic 27 May 281/3 Close along this rill [on the moon]..are three craterlets.
1883 C. P. Smyth in Nature 1 Feb. 315/2 The craterlet which forms the tip-top of the Peak.
ˈcraterous adj. of the nature of a crater, crater-like.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > land > landscape > low land > hollow or depression > [adjective] > relating to crater
crateriform1830
craterous1856
crateral1860
craterine1888
1856 E. B. Browning Aurora Leigh viii. 341 That June-day, Too deeply sunk in craterous sunsets now For you or me to dig it up.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
craterv.
1. intransitive. To form a crater or hollow.
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the world > space > shape > unevenness > condition or fact of receding > recede or form recess [verb (intransitive)] > be or become indented
to run in1578
indenta1652
dent1869
crater1884
1884 Cassell's Family 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.
2. transitive. To obstruct or destroy (a road or terrain) by craters formed by mines or mine shells. Also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > operation and use of weapons > use of mines and explosives > use mines and explosives [verb (transitive)] > mine > crater
crater1941
1917 ‘Contact’ Airman's Outings 134 Tens of thousands of shells had pocked the dirty soil, scores of mine explosions had cratered it.
1922 Glasgow Herald 22 Mar. 10 A number of roads had been cratered and a certain number of bridges blown up.
1925 H. Acton in Oxf. Poetry 2 Our lives are cratered with great pocks and scabs.
1941 Illustr. London News 198 223 (caption) Laying land-mines to delay advancing troops: cratering a road surface for depth-charge.
Derivatives
ˈcratered adj.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > operation and use of weapons > use of mines and explosives > [adjective] > cratered
cratered1921
society > armed hostility > military equipment > operation and use of weapons > action of propelling missile > discharge of firearms > management of artillery > [adjective] > shot at > cratered by shells
cratered1921
1921 Times Lit. Suppl. 8 Sept. 570/4 The Second [German Army] could not get beyond Albert on account of difficulties in the cratered area.
1943 C. Day Lewis Word over All 21 Yet words there must be, wept on the cratered present.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online March 2019).
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