▪ I. cavern, n.
(ˈkævən)
Also 4–7 cauerne, 5–6 kauerne.
[a. F. caverne cave, ad. L. caverna cave, den, cavity, f. cav-us hollow: see -ern.]
1. A hollow place under ground; a subterranean (or submarine) cavity; a cave.
The Fr. caverne is the exact equivalent of Eng. cave; F. cave is a subterranean hollow generally, a cellar, etc. In Eng., cave is the ordinary commonplace term, cavern is vaguer and more rhetorical, usually with associations of vastness, or indefiniteness of extent or limits.
| c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. iii. ix. 82 Þe crikes and þe cauernes of þe see yhidd in þe floodes. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xiv. lvi. (1495) 487 In cauernes myes and crepynge wormes make theyr dennes and nestes. 1430 Lydg. Chron. Troy iv. xxxi, In rochys harde, and in kauernes lowe. 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. ii. i. 80 Where wilt thou [conspiracie] finde a Cauerne darke enough To maske thy monstrous Visage? 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 268 In hollow Caverns Vermine make abode. 1752 Johnson Rambl. No. 33 ¶5, I will teach you to..bring out from the caverns of the mountains metals. 1794 Sullivan View Nat. I. 23 Mountains of the earth, the caverns of the ocean. 1795 Southey Joan of Arc i. 293 A spacious cavern, hewn amid The entrails of the earth. 1815 Moore Lalla R. viii, Terrific caverns gave Dark welcome to each stormy wave. 1862 Stanley Jew. Ch. I. xv. 300 Vast caverns open in the mountain side. |
† 2. Applied to the cavity of the ear, the frontal sinus, etc.; also to interstices between particles.
Obs.| 1626 Bacon Sylva §263 The cauerne and structure of the Eare. 1729 G. Shelvocke Artillery ii. 108 Being reduced to a fine Meal, it [Gunpowder] loses all its little Caverns or Pores. 1789 W. Buchan Dom. Med. (1790) 463 The small spungy bones of the upper jaw, the caverns of the forehead. |
3. attrib. and
Comb., as
cavern-door,
cavern-house,
cavern-pagoda,
cavern-temple,
cavern well;
cavernhold,
nonce-wd. after
household;
cavern-limestone, ‘the carboniferous limestone of Kentucky, so called from the innumerable caves which its hard strata contain’ (Bartlett);
cavern-like a.| 1832 H. T. De la Beche Geol. Man. 181 The theoretical conclusions that have been deduced from *cavern bones. |
| 1725 Pope Odyss. ix. 22 [They] croud the *cavern-door. |
| 1791 Cowper Odyss. ix. 434 Like whelps against his *cavern-floor he dashed them. |
| 1873 M. Collins Miranda I. 185 The various rude household or *cavernhold implements which the Troglodyte had used. |
| 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. (1872) I. 30 A *cavern-like gloom. |
| 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits xvi. Wks. (Bohn) II. 123 The gates of the old *cavern temples. |
▪ II. cavern, v. (
ˈkævən)
[f. prec. n.] 1. trans. To enclose or ensconce as in a cavern.
| c 1630 Risdon Surv. Devon §215 (1810) 225 The river is gathered into such a streight..that it seemeth to cavern itself. 1805 Southey Madoc in Azt. xiii, Now the child From light and life is cavern'd. 1822 Byron Werner ii. ii. 351 Sickness sits cavern'd in his hollow eye. |
2. To hollow out, so as to form a cavern.
| 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xlvii. (1856) 438 The sharpness and boldness of the lines where they were caverned and cloven down. 1860 Emerson Cond. Life vii. Wks. (Bohn) II. 421 The dungeons..dug and caverned out by grumbling..people. 1887 Scribner's Mag. II. 452 Places of exit of the caverning streams. |
3. intr. To lurk in a cavern; to den.
| 1860 S. Dobell in Macm. Mag. Aug. 326 Where the last deadliest rout Of furies cavern, to cast out those Dæmons. |