▪ I. cataract, n.
(ˈkætərækt)
Forms: 5 cataracte, (cateracte, catterak, 6 catracte, catharact, catarrhacte, 6–7 catarract(e, 7 cattaract, chateract, 8 catarect, 6– catarack), 7– cataract.
[a. F. cataracte (in senses 1–4, 6), ad. L. cataracta waterfall, portcullis, floodgate, a. Gr. καταρ(ρ)άκτης down-rushing, a down rushing bird, a portcullis, waterfall, ? (in LXX) floodgate; f. καταράσσ-ειν to dash down, dash headlong, rush or fall headlong, as rain or a river, f. κατ' or κατά down + ἀράσσ- or ῥάσσ-ειν to dash. (But some think it a deriv. of καταρρηγνύ-ναι to break down.) The sense-development in Gr., L., and Fr.-Eng., is not in all respects clear.]
† 1. pl. The ‘flood-gates’ of heaven, viewed as keeping back the rain (with reference to Gen. vii. 11, viii. 2, where Heb. has 'rbt lattices, windows, LXX καταρράκται, Vulg. cataractæ, the former prob., the latter certainly, = flood-gates, sluices; hence also Fr. cataractes du ciel). This, the earliest use in Eng., is now Obs.
| 1430 Lydg. Chron. Troy iii. xxiv, It seemed in the high heauen The Cataractes hadden be vndo. c 1460 Towneley Myst. 32 (Mätz.) Now ar the weders cest, and cateractes knyt. 1612 Brerewood Lang. & Relig. xiii. 137 To open the Cataracts of Heaven, and pour down water continually. 1656 Earl of Monmouth Adv. fr. Parnass. 93 That he would open the Chateracts of Heaven. 1667 Milton P.L. xi. 824. 1684 Burnet Th. Earth I. 13 The rain descended for forty days, the cataracts or floodgates of heaven being open'd. |
† b. applied to waterspouts; also
transf.| 1555 Eden Decades W. Ind. (Arb.) 386 They say..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. 1605 Shakes. Lear iii. ii. 2 Blow windes, and crack your cheeks; Rage, blow You Cataracts, and Hyrricano's spout. 1634 Hebbert Trav. 7 A long spout of stinking raine Pyramide wise, dissolved itselfe very neere us. This hidious Cataract. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 176 What if all..this Firmament Of Hell should spout her Cataracts of Fire. |
2. A waterfall; properly one of considerable size, and falling headlong over a precipice; thus distinguished from a
cascade.
[A rare sense in
Gr., but common in L., where applied to the Cataracts of the Nile.]
| 1594 Bp. King Jonas (1618) 346 We see what catarrhactes and downe-falls there are by the rage of the water. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 98 The lowest cataract or fal of water [of the Nile]. 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. vi. 88 Where Tivy falling down doth make a Cataract. 1725 De Foe Voy. round W. (1840) 343 A terrible noise..as of a mighty cataract, or waterfall. 1834 M. Somerville Connex. Phys. Sc. §16 (1849) 151 The great cataracts of the Oronoco. 1839 Thirlwall Greece II. 185 From the steppes of Scythia to the cataracts of the Nile. |
b. transf. A violent downpour or rush of water.
| 1634 Herbert Trav. 54 A violent storme of raine..caused such a sudden Deluge and Cattaract, that a Carravan of two thousand Camels perisht. 1762 Falconer Shipwr. iii. 290 From on high huge Cataracts descend. 1842 Tennyson Locksley Hall iii, The hollow ocean-ridges roaring into cataracts. 1860 Froude Hist. Eng. VI. 1 Cataracts of water flooded the houses in the city, and turned the streets into rivers. |
c. transf. and
fig. (
cf. flood).
| c 1630 Drummond of Hawthornden Poems 61 And Tongues..(Could ye amidst Worlds Cataracts them heare). 1784 Cowper Task iv. 73 Cataracts of declamation thunder here. 1864 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. I. iii. v. 164 His cataract of black beard. Ibid. V. xiii. iv. 44 Never came such a cataract of evil news on an Aulic Council before. |
† 3. A portcullis; also the grating of a window.
Obs. [Prob. in
Gr. earlier than sense 1; common in
med.L. but rare in
Eng.]
| [1360–1 MS. Vicars' Roll York, In j cateracta facta ante hostium Will. de Preston, 6d.] 1656 Blount Glossogr., Cataract, a Portcullis. a 1693 Urquhart Rabelais iii. Prol., Others..assured the Port-culleys, fastned the Herses, Sarasinasks and Cataracts. 1853 Stocqueler Milit. Encycl., Cataract, a portcullis. |
4. Pathol. An opacity of the crystalline lens of the eye, or of the capsule of the lens, or of both, ‘producing more or less impairment of sight, but never complete blindness’ (
Syd. Soc. Lex.).
[
App. a
fig. use of the sense portcullis. In
Fr., the physician A. Paré (
c 1550) has ‘cataracte ou coulisse’; and
Cotgr. (1611) has
coulisse ‘a portcullis.. also a web in the eye’, the notion being that even when the eye is open, the cataract obstructs vision, as the portcullis does a gateway. (But if originally in
med.L., it might arise from the sense ‘window-grating’
fenestra clathrata, Du Cange.)]
| 1547 Boorde Brev. Health lxvi. 28 b, A Catharact, the which doth let a man to se perfytly. 1575 Turberv. Falconrie 235 Ther is a Cataract, which doth light upon the eyes of a Hawke. 1599 A. M. tr. Gabelhouer's Bk. Physicke 54/2 For Catarracts or Pearles of the Eyes. 1611 Florio, Catarátta..called a Cataract or a pin and web. 1782 W. Heberden Comm. lxvi. (1806) 329 A cataract is always preceded by a dimness, or blue cloudiness of objects. 1791 Boswell Johnson (1831) I. 221 To understand that he would couch her gratis, if the cataract was ripe. 1822 Good Study of Med. (1844) III. 168 Simple cataract comes on without pain. 1876 tr. Wagner's Gen. Pathol. 40 Cataract is especially transmissible in the female line. |
| fig. 1630 R. Brathwait Eng. Gentlew. (1641) 319 Those thicke Cataracts of earthly vanities are dispersed. a 1711 Ken Hymnotheo Poet. Wks. 1721 III. 41 Your eyes thus dimly will Things Heav'nly see, Till they from sensual Cataracts are free. |
† 5. A brake for flax.
Obs. rare.
| a 1693 Urquhart Rabelais iii. l. 401 Athwart those Cataracts they break and bruise to very Trash the woody parcels. |
6. Mech. A form of governor for single-acting steam-engines, in which the stroke is regulated by the flow of water through an opening.
| 1832 Babbage Econ. Manuf. iii. (ed. 3) 27 Another very beautiful contrivance for regulating the number of strokes made by a steam-engine..is called the Cataract. 1861 Rankine Steam Eng. 58 A pump brake of a simple kind is exemplified in the apparatus called the cataract. |
† 7. (See
quot.)
Obs.| ? a 1400 Rel. Ant. I. 9 Cataracta, a catarac of the ethere, i. via subterranea. |
8. attrib. and
Comb., as
cataract patient,
cataract curls,
cataract wig, etc.;
cataract-like adj.;
cataract-wise adv.;
cataract-bird, an Australian bird (see
quot.);
cataract-knife,
cataract-needle, a knife and needle used in the extraction of cataract, or in couching.
| 1868 Wood Homes without H. xii. 215 The bird..is called..the *Cataract Bird (Origma rubricata) because it is always found where water-courses rush through rocky ground [in Australia]. |
| 1864 Sala in Daily Tel. 21 Nov., That beaming belle..with the *Cataract curls. |
| 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. ii. 12 An avalanche pours *cataract-like over a ledge. |
| 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 399/2 A *Cataract-needle..is used to draw up the Cataract off the sight of the eye while it is cuting away. |
| 1882 Good Study of Med. (1844) III. 165 A *cataract patient sees a lighted candle as if it were involved in a cloud. |
| 1870 Athenæum 31 Dec. 881 Boileau Despréaux himself, in his court suit and his *cataract wig. |
| 1879 J. Hawthorne Laugh. Mill 39 The stream fell *cataract-wise into a deep pool below. |
▪ II. cataract, v. [f. prec. n.] a. trans. To pour like a cataract, to pour copiously (
nonce-use).
b. intr. To fall in a cataract.
| 1796 Coleridge Let. in Biogr. Lit. App. (1847) II. 370 The Monthly has cataracted panegyric on me. 1832 J. Wilson in Blackw. Mag. XXXII. 125 No river should cataract larger than the Clyde. 1844 E. Warburton Crescent & Cross (1845) I. 285 The whole body of the Nile precipitates itself..cataracting very respectably. |