Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A wide, two-handled bowl used in ancient Greece and Rome for mixing wine and water.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See crater, 1.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An ancient Greek vessel for mixing water and wine.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek krātēr; see kerə- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • Mr. Hoving, who appreciated the publicity value of the controversy, dubbed the krater the "hot pot."

    A Celebrity in Low-Key Digs 2009

  • Even before the vase, known as a krater, went on display, experts contended that it had been wrested illicitly from an Etruscan tomb near Rome.

    NYT > Home Page By RANDY KENNEDY 2010

  • Even before the vase, known as a krater, went on display, experts contended that it had been wrested illicitly from an Etruscan tomb near Rome.

    NYT > Home Page By RANDY KENNEDY 2010

  • Just a few of the most famous objects, including the Euphronios krater stolen by tomb robbers and recovered three years ago from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Sarcophagus of the Spouses, an enchanting icon of connubial conviviality, rate display cases of their own.

    The Joy of Museums That Live in the Past Francis X. Rocca 2011

  • I spent over 10 minutes in the room with the krater on a June afternoon, and no one else came in.

    Maybe It's Time to Re-Examine Policy on Antiquities 2011

  • The krater was in one of the two cases lit by white "sparkle" lights.

    Maybe It's Time to Re-Examine Policy on Antiquities 2011

  • The krater was basically a punchbowl, if you were serving watered wine, but sometimes it was used like a champagne bucket fill it with ice, put your amphora or whatever in it, and the wine stayed cool.

    SPARTACUS: episode 10 hradzka 2010

  • Many of the works here tell a layered story: A volute-krater -- a vessel used to mix water and wine -- is illustrated with two ceremonies: a formal one with a woman preparing to make an offering to the gods; the other, a frolic of maenads and satyrs.

    Worshipping Women: Onassis Center Jan 2009

  • (The krater belonged to the ancient Etruscans, but they of course ­imported it from Greece.)

    A Celebrity in Low-Key Digs 2009

  • "No figure of Christ on the cross I'd ever seen matched this image," wrote the Met's former director Thomas Hoving about his first look at the krater in 1972.

    A Celebrity in Low-Key Digs 2009

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