cataract

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The cool, liquid green will run through your veins, and the voice of the cataract will be the expression of your own heart.

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Definitions (23)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A large or high waterfall.
  2. noun A great downpour; a deluge.
  3. noun Pathology Opacity of the lens or capsule of the eye, causing impairment of vision or blindness.

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Examples (50)

  • For solution._--THE NEEDLE OPERATION.--Suitable (among other cases) especially in congenital cataracts in infants, and in cases of diabetic cataract The principle of this operation is that the lens, once the capsule is freely opened in front and the aqueous humour admitted, is found rapidly to become absorbed and disappear, if the cataract has been a soft one Operation._--A needle with a lance-shaped head is to be used. —  A Manual of the Operations of Surgery For the Use of Senior Students, House Surgeons, and Junior Practitioners
  • I assume they had a Maid of the Mist at the cataract, and if so he certainly had his photograph taken in a suit of oilskin--but, of course, this is only an assumption. —  A Fantasy of Mediterranean Travel
  • It may have been from Byron's simile of the tail of the white horse and the cataract, and the snow-white steed of that incarnation of nobility, Crescentius, and there rang in my memory a mystical verse My eye bears a glance like the gleam of a lance When I hear the waters dash and dance And I smile with glee, for I love to see The sight of anything that's free But it was a mingled sense of nobility, and above all of freedom_, which impressed me in that roaring mist of waters, in the wild river leaping as in reckless sport over the vast broad precipice. —  Memoirs
  • On they came with irresistible impetuosity, bellowing furiously, while their hoofs thundered on the turf with the muffled continuous roar of a distant, but mighty cataract--the Indians, meanwhile, urging them on by hideous yell and frantic gesture The advance-guard came bounding madly to the edge of the precipice. —  The Dog Crusoe and his Master
  • The least harmful part of the cataract was the water, for the current now carried along with it stones, pieces of timber, and rubbish. —  Deep Down, a Tale of the Cornish Mines
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

waterfall ·  torrent ·  precipice ·  cascade ·  gorge ·  chasm ·  billow ·  whirlwind ·  whirlpool ·  glacier ·  rivulet ·  gulf

Used in the same contextWord Family

cataract:   cataracts
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English cataracte, from Old French, from Latin cataracta, from Greek katarraktēs, kataraktēs, downrush, waterfall, portcullis, probably from katarassein, to dash down (kat-, kata-, cata- + arassein, to strike). Sense 3, from a comparison to a portcullis or other falling impediment or covering.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English cateracte = French cataracte = Provencal cataracta = Spanish Portuguese catarata = Italian cateratta = D. G. Danish Swedish katarakt = Russian kataraktŭ, from Latin cataracta, also catarracta and catarractes, from Greek καταρράκτης, a waterfall, also a portcullis (as adjective, down-rushing): either (1) from καταρρηγνν/ναι (second aorist καταρραγη̄ναι), break down, in pass, rush down, from κατά, down, + ῤηγνύναι, break; or (2), being also spelled καταράκτης, from καταράσσ, σ1ειν, dash down, break in pieces, fall headlong, from κατά, down, + ἀράσσ, σ1ειν, strike hard, dash in pieces.
 

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/ˈkætərækt/
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