crater
- the cup-shaped depression or cavity on the surface of the earth or other heavenly body marking the orifice of a volcano.
- Also called impact crater, meteorite crater. (on the surface of the earth, moon, etc.) a bowl-shaped depression with a raised rim, formed by the impact of a meteoroid.Compare astrobleme.
- Astronomy. (on the surface of the moon) a circular or almost circular area having a depressed floor, almost always containing a central mountain and usually completely enclosed by walls that are often higher than those of a walled plain; ring formation; ring.Compare walled plain.
- the bowllike orifice of a geyser.
- the hole or pit in the ground where a bomb, shell, or military mine has exploded.
- Electricity. the cavity formed in a positive carbon electrode by an electric arc.
- Greek and Roman Antiquity. krater.
- Metalworking. a depression at the end of a bead produced by welding.
- genitive Cra·te·ris [krey-teer-is] /kreɪˈtɪər ɪs/. (initial capital letter) Astronomy. the Cup, a small southern constellation west of Corvus and north of Hydra.
- to make craters in: Bombs had cratered the landscape.
- Slang.
- to cancel, abandon, or cast aside: to crater the new project.
- to destroy or ruin: One more disappointment won't crater me.
- to form a crater or craters: The surface of the concrete cratered and cracked under the repeated impacts.
Origin of crater
Crater
- Joseph Force [fawrs, fohrs] /fɔrs, foʊrs/, 1889–?, a judge of the New York State Supreme Court: his mysterious disappearance on August 6, 1930, has never been solved.
krater
or cra·ter
- a mixing bowl characterized by a wide mouth and body with two handles projecting vertically from the juncture of the neck and body, used to mix wine and water.
Origin of krater
Examples from the Web for crater
Contemporary Examples of crater
He scrambled outside to find a 25-foot-wide crater just beyond the mud wall surrounding his family compound.
In this crater, frail silhouettes, women for the most part, bend to dig with their bare hands in the rubble.
Interest rates will soar, home values will plummet, stock markets will crash, and global economies will crater.
Their hydrogen sulfide plant blew a crater in the ground a year ago.
13 Revelations From Reddit’s ‘Dirty Little Secret’ Thread Exposing Alleged Industry SecretsNina Strochlic
August 23, 2013
The letter to Clinton quotes one source who described the crater as “big enough for forty men to go through.”
Historical Examples of crater
We stood now on the rim of the crater, looking straight into the inferno.
The UnderdogF. Hopkinson Smith
The crater was one hundred and fifty feet wide and fifty feet deep.
But the empty silence of the desert was misleading, as the men in the crater knew.
Two Thousand Miles BelowCharles Willard Diffin
In another moment they were riding rapidly toward the rim of the crater.
Louisiana LouWilliam West Winter
He pressed on up to the rim of the crater and lost no time in the descent on the other side.
Louisiana LouWilliam West Winter
crater
- the bowl-shaped opening at the top or side of a volcano or top of a geyser through which lava and gases are emitted
- a similarly shaped depression formed by the impact of a meteorite or exploding bomb
- any of the circular or polygonal walled formations covering the surface of the moon and some other planets, formed probably either by volcanic action or by the impact of meteorites. They can have a diameter of up to 240 kilometres (150 miles) and a depth of 8900 metres (29 000 feet)
- a pit in an otherwise smooth surface
- a large open bowl with two handles, used for mixing wines, esp in ancient Greece
- to make or form craters in (a surface, such as the ground)
- slang to fail; collapse; crash
Word Origin for crater
Crater
- a small faint constellation in the S hemisphere lying between Virgo and Hydra
Word Origin and History for crater
1610s, from Latin crater, from Greek krater "bowl for mixing wine with water," from kera- "to mix," from PIE root *kere- "to mix, confuse; cook" (see rare (adj.2)). Used in Latin for bowl-shaped mouth of a volcano. Applied to features of the Moon since 1860. As a verb, from 1830 in poetry, 1872 in science. Related: Cratered; cratering.
crater
(krā′tər)- A circular depression or pit in the surface of a tissue or body part.
crater
- A bowl-shaped depression at the top of a volcano or at the mouth of a geyser. Volcanic craters can form because of magma explosions in which a large amount of lava is thrown out from a volcano, leaving a hole, or because the roof of rock over an underground magma pool collapses after the magma has flowed away.
- A shallow, bowl-shaped depression in a surface, formed by an explosion or by the impact of a body, such as a meteorite.