Meaning

A (large) waterfall, specifically one flowing over the edge of a cliff..

Definitions by Sense

1. A (large) waterfall, specifically one flowing over the edge of a cliff.
2. (by extension) A flood of water; specifically, steep rapids in a river.
3. (figurative) An overwhelming downpour or rush; a flood.
4. (mechanics, chiefly historical) A type of governor used in single-acting steam engines, where a flow of water through an opening regulates the stroke.
5. (obsolete, also figurative) Synonym of waterspout (“a whirlwind that forms over water”).
6. (intransitive) Of a river, etc.: to fall in the form of a waterfall.
7. (transitive, figurative, rare) To cause (something) to pour or rush like a waterfall.
8. (obsolete, rare) Synonym of portcullis (“a gate in the form of a grating which is lowered into place at the gateway of a castle, a fort, etc.”); also, a window grating.

Example Sentences

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: […]

[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; […]

Word Forms

• cataracts
• cataracting
• cataracted

Synonyms for cataract

Related Words

When Should You Use Cataract?

Use cataract when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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