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definitions

caster

[kas-ter, kah-ster]
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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR caster ON THESAURUS.COM

noun Also castor (for defs 2–5).

verb (used without object)

(of a wheel) to swivel freely in a horizontal plane.

RELATED WORDS

disk, drum, roller, beaker, jug, vial, urn, chalice, decanter, canteen, carafe, whirl, gyre, rotation, circulation, pulley, hoop, circumvolution, round, turn

Origin of caster

Middle English word dating back to 1300–50; see origin at cast, -er1
Related formscast·er·less, adjective

caste

[kast, kahst]

noun

Sociology.
  1. an endogamous and hereditary social group limited to persons of the same rank, occupation, economic position, etc., and having mores distinguishing it from other such groups.
  2. any rigid system of social distinctions.
Hinduism. any of the social divisions into which Hindu society is traditionally divided, each caste having its own privileges and limitations, transferred by inheritance from one generation to the next; jati.Compare class(def 13).
any class or group of society sharing common cultural features: low caste; high caste.
social position conferred upon one by a caste system: to lose caste.
Entomology. one of the distinct forms among polymorphous social insects, performing a specialized function in the colony, as a queen, worker or soldier.

adjective

of, relating to, or characterized by caste: a caste society; a caste system; a caste structure.

Origin of caste

1545–55; < Portuguese casta race, breed, noun use of casta, feminine of casto < Latin castus pure, chaste
Related formscaste·ism, nouncaste·less, adjectivean·ti·caste, adjectivein·ter·caste, adjectivesub·caste, noun
Can be confusedcast caste class
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for caster

Contemporary Examples of caster

Historical Examples of caster

  • I shall go back and refute that common scoffer, that caster of doubts.

    The Burning Spear

    John Galsworthy

  • Happily my bust is out of hand, and the caster (not B. this time) is hard at work on it.

  • His opponent, still with his secretive smile, took up the caster.

    In Kings' Byways

    Stanley J. Weyman

  • The chief Latin contributions are -Chester, -cester, -caster, Lat.

    The Romance of Names

    Ernest Weekley

  • One of these is the composing machine, or keyboard, the other the caster, or type-founder.

British Dictionary definitions for caster

caster

noun

a person or thing that casts
Also: castor a bottle with a perforated top for sprinkling sugar, etc, or a stand containing such bottles
Also: castor a small wheel mounted on a swivel so that the wheel tends to turn into its plane of rotation

caste

noun

  1. any of the four major hereditary classes, namely the Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaisya, and Sudra into which Hindu society is dividedSee also Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaisya, Sudra
  2. Also called: caste systemthe system or basis of such classes
  3. the social position or rank conferred by this system
any social class or system based on such distinctions as heredity, rank, wealth, profession, etc
the position conferred by such a system
entomol any of various types of specialized individual, such as the worker, in social insects (hive bees, ants, etc)

Word Origin for caste

C16: from Portuguese casta race, breed, ancestry, from casto pure, chaste, from Latin castus
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for caster
n.1

"person or thing that casts," late 14c. (also sometimes castor), agent noun from cast (v.). Meaning "pepper shaker, small perforated container" is from 1670s, on notion of "throwing."

n.2

"wheel and swivel attached to furniture," 1748, agent noun from cast (v.) in the old sense of "turn." Also sometimes castor.

caste

n.

1550s, "a race of men," from Latin castus "chaste," from castus "cut off, separated; pure" (via notion of "cut off" from faults), past participle of carere "to be cut off from" (and related to castration), from PIE *kas-to-, from root *kes- "to cut" (cf. Latin cassus "empty, void"). Originally spelled cast in English and later often merged with cast (n.) in its secondary sense "sort, kind, style."

Application to Hindu social groups was picked up by English in India 1610s from Portuguese casta "breed, race, caste," earlier casta raça, "unmixed race," from the same Latin word. The current spelling of of the English word is from this reborrowing. Caste system is first recorded 1840.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Science definitions for caster

caste

[kăst]

A specialized group carrying out a specific function within a colony of social insects. For example, in an ant colony, members of the caste of workers forage for food outside the colony or tend eggs and larvae, while the members of the caste of soldiers, often larger with stronger jaws, are responsible for defense of the colony.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Culture definitions for caster

caste

[(kast)]

One of the four hereditary social divisions in Hinduism. Members of any one caste are restricted in their choice of occupation and may have only limited association with members of other castes.

Note

Caste has come to mean a group of persons set apart by economic, social, religious, legal, or political criteria, such as occupation, status, religious denomination, legal privilege, skin color, or some other physical characteristic. Members of a caste tend to associate among themselves and rarely marry outside the caste. Castes are more socially separate from each other than are social classes.

Note

During the height of segregation in the United States, African-Americans were sometimes loosely referred to as a caste.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.