crater

First coined 1613, from Latin crātēr (“basin”), from Ancient Greek κρᾱτήρ (krātḗr, “mixing-bowl, wassail-bowl”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹeɪ.tə(ɹ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹeɪ.tɚ/
• Rhymes: -eɪtə(r)

crater (plural craters)

1. (astronomy) A hemispherical pit created by the impact of a meteorite or other object. [from 1831]

   Synonym: astrobleme

2. (geology) The basin-like opening or mouth of a volcano, through which the chief eruption comes; similarly, the mouth of a geyser, about which a cone of silica is often built up. [from 1610s]
3. (informal) The pit left by the explosion of a mine or bomb. [from 1839]
4. (informal, by extension) Any large, roughly circular depression or hole.
5. (historical) Alternative spelling of krater (“vessel for mixing water and wine”)
   • 1941, Louis MacNeice, The March of the 10,000:

     The people of those parts lived in underground houses - more of dug-outs - along with their goats and sheep and they had great craters full of wine, barley-wine, that they drank through reeds.

• crater lake

• machtesh
• caldera

• crater on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

crater (third-person singular simple present craters, present participle cratering, simple past and past participle cratered)

1. To form craters in a surface (of a planet or moon)
2. To collapse catastrophically; to become devastated or completely destroyed.

   Synonyms: implode, hollow out

   The economy is about to crater. -- Attributed by David Letterman to Sen. John McCain. NYTimes blog

3. (snowboarding) To crash or fall.

   He cratered into that snow bank about five seconds after his first lesson.

Possibly a diminutive of cratur (dialect form of creature).

• (Ireland) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹeː.təɹ/

crater (plural craters)

1. (Ireland, informal, Britain, dialectal) A term of endearment, a dote, a wretched thing.
   • 1843, William Hamilton Maxwell, Wild Sports of the West: With Legendary Tales, and Local Sketches, R. Bentley, page 77:

     I then had the two best tarriers beneath the canopy; this poor crater is their daughter," and he patted the dog's head affectionately.

   • 1772, David Garrick, The Irish Widow, published 1859, page 611:

     She is a charming crater; I would venture to say that, if I was not her father.

   • 1872, Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenwood Tree

     Then why not stop for fellow-craters -- going to thy own father's house too, as we be, and knowen us so well?

This term is still commonly used in speech but rarely appears in modern writing.

• Carter, arrect, carter, tracer

• crātēra

Borrowed from Ancient Greek κρᾱτήρ (krātḗr, “mixingbowl, wassail-bowl”), from κεράννυμι (keránnumi, “to mix, to mingle, to blend”)

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkraː.teːr/

crātēr m (genitive crātēris); third declension

1. A basin or bowl for water or for mixing.
2. The opening of a volcano.

• English: crater
• French: cratère
• Russian: кратер m (krater)

• crater in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• crater in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• crater in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• crater in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly
• crater in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin