cataract
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: engineering
mechanical-engineering
mechanics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
Etymology: PIE word
 *ḱóm
The noun is derived from cataracts (noun (plural only)), from Late Middle English cataract, cataracta, cateract, cateracte (“floodgate of heaven”), from Old French cataracte (modern French cataracte), and from its etymon Latin cataracta (“floodgate; waterfall”), from Ancient Greek καταρ(ρ)άκτης (katar(rh)áktēs, “(noun) waterfall; (adjective) rushing downwards”), from καταρ(ρ)ᾱ́σσω (katar(rh)ā́ssō, “to pour down; to rush downwards”) + -της (-tēs, suffix forming nouns denoting a state of being). Καταρ(ρ)ᾱ́σσω (Katar(rh)ā́ssō) is derived either:
* from κᾰτᾰ- (kătă-, prefix meaning ‘downwards’) + ἀρᾰ́σσω (arắssō, “to dash to pieces; to strike”) (further etymology unknown, possibly onomatopoeic) or ῥᾱ́σσω (rhā́ssō, “to dash; to strike”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wreh₂ǵʰ- (“to pound, strike”)); or
* from καταρρηγνύναι (katarrhēgnúnai, “to break down”).
The verb is derived from the noun.
Inflected forms:
form: cataracts
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: cataracts
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: cataracting
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: cataracted
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: cataracted
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A (large) waterfall, specifically one flowing over the edge of a cliff.
pos: noun
examples: The cataracts on the Nile helped to compartment Upper Egypt.
This Elephantis being an Iſland, is inhabited beneath the lovveſt cataract or fall of vvater three miles, and aboue Syene 16: […]
[T]he Salmon ſeekes a freſher ſtreame to find / […] and ſtems the vvatry tract / VVhere Tivy falling dovvne, doth make a Cataract, / Forc't by the riſing Rocks that there her courſe oppoſe, […]
[C]oming dovvn farther the ſame River, they heard a terrible Noiſe in the River, as of a mighty Cataract, or VVater-fall, vvhich increaſed as they came forvvard, till it grevv ſo loud, that they could not hear themſelves ſpeak, much leſs hear one another.
The sounding cataract / Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock, / The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood, / Their colours and their forms, were then to me / An appetite: […]
gloss: A flood of water; specifically, steep rapids in a river.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
examples: [S]uch a violent ſtorme of raine vnburthened it ſelfe neere this place, and cauſed ſuch a ſudden Deluge and Cattaract, that a Carrauan of tvvo thouſand Camels periſht, and vvere caſt avvay by it.
Locksley Hall, that in the distance overlooks the sandy tracts, / And the hollow ocean-ridges roaring into cataracts.
[T]here came a storm such as no living Englishman remembered. The summer evening grew black as night. Cataracts of water flooded the houses in the city and turned the streets into rivers; […]
gloss: An overwhelming downpour or rush; a flood.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: His cataract of eloquence
Cataracts of declamation thunder here, / There foreſts of no-meaning ſpread the page / In vvhich all comprehenſion vvanders loſt; […]
The palace bang'd, and buzz'd and clackt, / And all the long-pent stream of life / Dash'd downward in a cataract.
Water—there is not a drop of water there! Were Niagara but a cataract of sand, would you travel your thousand miles to see it?
[T]he look of the man Casimir, between his cataract of black beard and this semi-nightcap, is carelessly truculent.
Never came such a cataract of evil news on an Aulic Council before.
As if on cue came a cataract of explosions. She turned on her heel and scurried back to the courtyard and down into the school's basement. The dirt floor, low ceiling and unfinished stone walls were barely illuminated by candles and a dim string of green decorative lights.
gloss: A type of governor used in single-acting steam engines, where a flow of water through an opening regulates the stroke.
pos: noun
tags: historical
gloss: Synonym of waterspout (“a whirlwind that forms over water”).
pos: noun
tags: also
figuratively
obsolete
examples: They ſay furthermore that in certeyne places of the ſea, they ſawe certeyne ſtremes of water which they caule ſpoutes faulynge owt of the ayer into the ſea: […] Sum phantaſie that theſe ſhulde bee the cataractes of heauen whiche were all opened at Noes fludde.
Blovv vvind & cracke your cheekes, rage, blovv / You caterickes, & Hircanios ſpout til you haue drencht, / The ſteeples drovvn'd the cockes, […]
[A] long ſpout of ſtinking raine Pyramide vviſe, diſſolued it ſelfe very neere vs. This hidious Cataract, as I conceiue is exhaled by the Suns povverfull Attract, and conuerted into an ill congeſted Cloud, vvanting height and heate, is forced into a violent eruption, vvhich diſſolued by the penetrating Sunne, eſſudes it ſelfe altogether (vvhence it had beginning) into the Ocean, […]
[W]hat if all / Her ſtores vvere op'n'd, and this Firmament / Of Hell, ſhould ſpout her Cataracts of Fire, […]
gloss: Of a river, etc.: to fall in the form of a waterfall.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: [N]o river should cataract larger than the Clyde.
After a short rest, we moved on over a quiet space of water to the third and greatest fall, where the whole body of the Nile precipitates itself from between two towering cliffs, foaming and plashing, and, in short, cataracting very respectably.
gloss: To cause (something) to pour or rush like a waterfall.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
rare
transitive
examples: My Poems have been reviewed. The Monthly has cataracted panegyric on me; the Critical cascaded it, and the Analytical dribbled it with civility.
Derived words: cataractal
cataract bog
cataracted
cataractic
Translations: