Meaning of Cataract | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A (large) waterfall, specifically one flowing over the edge of a cliff.
2. A suburb of Wollongong in the Wollondilly council area and the Wollongong council area, New South Wales, Australia.
3. 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.
   obsolete, rare
4. A flood of water; specifically, steep rapids in a river.
   broadly
5. A clouding of the lens in the eye leading to a decrease in vision.
   broadly
6. An overwhelming downpour or rush; a flood.
   figuratively
7. Something which obscures.
   broadly, figuratively
8. A type of governor used in single-acting steam engines, where a flow of water through an opening regulates the stroke.
   historical
9. A tool used for breaking flax; a brake.
   broadly, obsolete
10. Synonym of waterspout (“a whirlwind that forms over water”).
    also, figuratively, obsolete

Equivalents

Examples

“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; […]”

“His cataract of eloquence”

“Cataracts of declamation thunder here, / There foreſts of no-meaning ſpread the page / In vvhich all comprehenſion vvanders loſt; […]”

“The palace bang'd, and buzz'd and clackt, / And all the long-pent stream of life / Dash'd downward in a cataract.”

“Water—there is not a drop of water there! Were Niagara but a cataract of sand, would you travel your thousand miles to see it?”

“[T]he look of the man Casimir, between his cataract of black beard and this semi-nightcap, is carelessly truculent.”

“Never came such a cataract of evil news on an Aulic Council before.”

“As if on cue came a cataract of explosions. She turned on her heel and scurried back to the courtyard and down into the school's basement. The dirt floor, low ceiling and unfinished stone walls were barely illuminated by candles and a dim string of green decorative lights.”

“They ſay furthermore 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.”

“Blovv vvind & cracke your cheekes, rage, blovv / You caterickes, & Hircanios ſpout til you haue drencht, / The ſteeples drovvn'd the cockes, […]”

Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks, rage, blow, / You cataracts and hurricanes, spout till you have drenched / The steeples, drowned the cocks, […]

“[A] long ſpout of ſtinking raine Pyramide vviſe, diſſolued it ſelfe very neere vs. This hidious Cataract, as I conceiue is exhaled by the Suns povverfull Attract, and conuerted into an ill congeſted Cloud, vvanting height and heate, is forced into a violent eruption, vvhich diſſolued by the penetrating Sunne, eſſudes it ſelfe altogether (vvhence it had beginning) into the Ocean, […]”

“[W]hat if all / Her ſtores vvere op'n'd, and this Firmament / Of Hell, ſhould ſpout her Cataracts of Fire, […]”

“Others did fortifie and rampire their Walls, […] assured the Port-culleys, fasten'd the Herses, Sarasinesks and Cataracks, placed their Centries, and doubled their Patrouilee.”

“[T]her is a Caratact which doth light vpon the eyes of a Hawke, whome we may tearme a ſuffuſion, a miſchiefe not ſafely remoued, and diuers times impoſſible to be recured, as namely whẽ [when] it is growen too thicke, and ouerlong hath bin ſuffered in the eye, without ſeeking remedie for it: […]”

“Rarely, a dense, swollen neglected cataract precipitates an angle-closure glaucoma.”

“Shallow, this is what I created / Splayed out skeletons in the cracks in the pavement / And now, can you feel the injection back behind those cloudy eyes? / In-between every cataract, a projection of my life”

“Thoſe filmes vvhich darkened the eye of the mindes, are remoued, thoſe thicke Cataracts of earthly vanities are diſperſed and diſpelled, and a nevv light into a nevv heart infuſed.”

“Some modern Pantagruelists, to shun and avoid that manual Labour, which such a separating and partitional Work would of necessity require, employ certain Catarratick Instruments, […] and athwart those Cataracts they break and bruise to very Trash the woody parcels [of the fictional herb “pantagruelion”], thereby to preserve the better the Fibres, which are the precious and excellent parts.”

CEFR level