crater: Meaning and Definition of

cra•ter

1. the cup-shaped depression or cavity on the surface of the earth or other heavenly body marking the orifice of a volcano.
2. Also called(on the surface of the earth, moon, etc.) a bowl-shaped depression with a raised rim, formed by the impact of a meteoroid. Cf. astrobleme.
3. (on the surface of the moon) a circular or almost circular area having a depressed floor, almost always containing a central mountain and usually completely enclosed by walls that are often higher than those of a walled plain; ring formation; ring. Cf. walled plain.
4. the bowllike orifice of a geyser.
5. the hole or pit in the ground where a bomb, shell, or military mine has exploded.
6. the cavity formed in a positive carbon electrode by an electric arc.
7. krater.
8. a depression at the end of a bead produced by welding.
9. (cap.)the Cup, a small southern constellation west of Corvus and north of Hydra.

1. to make craters in: Bombs had cratered the landscape.
2. to crater the new project.
1. to cancel, abandon, or cast aside:to crater the new project.
2. to destroy or ruin:One more disappointment won't crater me.

1. to form a crater or craters: The surface of the concrete cratered and cracked under the repeated impacts.

Cra•ter

1. 1889–?, a judge of the New York State Supreme Court: his mysterious disappearance on August 6, 1930, has never been solved.