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

👁 Image

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹeɪ.tə(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

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

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. The pit left by the explosion of a mine or bomb. [from 1839]
   • 2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43:

     But signalman Bridges was never to answer driver Gimbert's desperate question. A deafening, massive blast blew the wagon to shreds, the 44 high-explosive bombs exploding like simultaneous hits from the aircraft they should have been dropped from. The station was instantly reduced to bits of debris, and the line to a huge crater.

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.

• machtesh
• caldera

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

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

   Synonyms: implode, hollow out, tank

   • 2008 November 25, David Letterman, quoting John McCain, “‘The Economy Is Exploding’”, in NYTimes blog‎^[1]:

     Yup, John McCain said to me the economy “is about to crater.” You folks worried about the economy? Whoo! Not me.

   • 2020 August 6, Kate Conger, “Uber’s Revenue Craters, as Deliveries Surge in Pandemic”, in New York Times‎^[2]:

     Uber said on Thursday that its ride-hailing business had cratered in the second quarter as people traveled less in the pandemic.

   • 2022 October 4, Kate Conger, Lauren Hirsch, “Elon Musk Suggests Buying Twitter at His Original Price”, in The New York Times‎^[3], →ISSN:

     The potential agreement comes after months of disputes that have created existential challenges for Twitter, cratering its share price, demoralizing its employees and spooking the advertisers it relies on for revenue.

   • 2026 January 6, Linda Feldmann, Victoria Hoffmann, “Trump’s foray into Venezuela carries political risk at home”, in The Christian Science Monitor:

     But analysts don’t see Mr. Trump’s support cratering over Venezuela anytime soon.

3. (snowboarding) To crash or fall.

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

4. (video games) To die from fall damage.

• 👁 Image
  crater on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• (Ireland) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹeː.təɹ/

crater (plural craters)

1. (Scotland, Ireland) Alternative form of creature.
   • 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”, in The British Drama: A Collection of the Most Esteemed Tragedies, Comedies ..., published 1859, page 611:

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

   • 1872, [Thomas Hardy], “I. Mellstock-Lane”, in Under the Greenwood Tree: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School, volume I, London: Tinsley Brothers, →OCLC, part I, page 6:

     ‘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

👁 Image

• crātēra
• crēterra

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

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkraː.teːr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkraː.ter]

crātēr m (genitive crātēris or crātēros); third declension

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

Third-declension noun (non-Greek-type or Greek-type, normal variant).

• → English: crater
• → Finnish: krateeri
• → French: cratère
• → German: Krater
• → Hungarian: kráter
• → Serbo-Croatian: кра́тер
• → Russian: кра́тер (kráter)
• → Sicilian: cratiri
• → Spanish: cráter
• → Catalan: cràter
• → Galician: cráter

• “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

Borrowed from French cratère.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkra.ter/

crater n (plural cratere)

1. crater

• “crater”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2026

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=crater&oldid=89612142"