Forms: 5 cataracte, (cateracte, catterak, 6 catracte, catharact, catarrhacte. 6–7 catarract(e, 7 cattaract, chateract, 8 catarect, 6– catarack), 7– cataract. [a. F. cataracte (in senses 1–4, 6), ad. L. cataracta waterfall, portcullis, floodgate, a. Gr. καταρ(ρ)άκτης down-rushing, a down rushing bird, a portcullis, waterfall, ? (in LXX) floodgate; f. καταράσσ-ειν to dash down, dash headlong, rush or fall headlong, as rain or a river, f. κατ᾽ or κατά down + ἀράσσ- or ῥάσσ-ειν to dash. (But some think it a deriv. of καταρρηγνύ-ναι to break down.) The sense-development in Gr., L., and Fr.-Eng., is not in all respects clear.]
† 1. pl. The ‘flood-gates’ of heaven, viewed as keeping back the rain (with reference to Gen. vii. 11, viii. 2, where Heb. has [Hebrew] lattices, windows, LXX καταρράκται, Vulg. cataractæ, the former prob., the latter certainly, = flood-gates, sluices; hence also Fr. cataractes du ciel). This, the earliest use in Eng., is now Obs.
1430. Lydg., Chron. Troy, III. xxiv. It semed in the high heauen The Cataractes hadden be vndo.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., 32 (Mätz.). Now ar the weders cest, and cateractes knyt.
1612. Brerewood, Lang. & Relig., xiii. (1635), 112. To open the Cataracts of Heaven, and powre downe water continually.
1656. Earl Monm., Advt. fr. Parnass., 93. That he would once more open the Chateracts of Heaven.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 819. All the Cataracts Of Heav’n set open on the Earth shall powre Raine day and night
1684. Burnet, Th. Earth, I. (1691), 13. The Rain descended for forty days, the Cataracts or Floodgates of Heaven being open’d.
† b. applied to waterspouts; also transf.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind. (Arb.), 386. They say … 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 catractes of heauen whiche were all opened at Noes fludde.
1605. Shaks., Lear, III. ii. 2. Blow windes, and crack your cheeks; Rage, blow You Cataracts, and Hyrricano’s spout.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 7. A long spout of stinking raine Pyramide wise, dissolued it selfe very neere vs. This hidious Cataract.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 176. What if all … this Firmament Of Hell should spout her Cataracts of Fire.
2. A waterfall; properly one of considerable size, and falling headlong over a precipice; thus distinguished from a CASCADE.
[A rare sense in Gr., but common in L., where applied to the Cataracts of the Nile.]
1594. Bp. King, Jonas (1618), 346. By common experience at home in lockes and mill-dammes wee see what catarrhactes and downe-falls there are by the rage of the water.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 98. The lowest cataract or fal of water [of the Nile].
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., vi. 88. Stems the watry tract Where Tivy falling downe, doth make a Cataract.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 343. A terrible noise in the river, as of a mighty cataract, or waterfall.
1834. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sc., § 16 (1849), 151. The great cataracts of the Oronoco.
1839. Thirlwall, Greece, II. 185. From the steppes of Scythia to the cataracts of the Nile.
b. transf. A violent downpour or rush of water.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 54. A violent storme of raine … caused such a sudden Deluge and Cattaract, that a Carrauan of two thousand Camels perisht.
1762. Falconer, Shipwr., III. 290. From on high huge Cataracts descend.
1842. Tennyson, Locksley Hall, iii. The hollow ocean-ridges roaring into cataracts.
1860. Froude, Hist. Eng., VI. 1. Cataracts of water flooded the houses in the city, and turned the streets into rivers.
c. transf. and fig. (cf. flood).
c. 1630. Drumm. of Hawth., Poems, 61. And Tongues … (Could ye amidst Worlds Cataracts them heare).
1784. Cowper, Task, IV. 73. Cataracts of declamation thunder here.
1864. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., I. III. v. 164. His cataract of black beard. Ibid., V. XIII. iv. 44. Never came such a cataract of evil news on an Aulic Council before.
† 3. A portcullis; also the grating of a window. Obs. [Prob. in Gr. earlier than sense 1; common in med.L. but rare in Eng.]
[1360–1. MS. Vicars’ Roll York, In j cateracta facta ante hostium Will. de Preston, 6d.]
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Cataract, a Portcullis.
a. 1693. Urquhart, Rabelais, III. Prol. Others … assured the Port-culleys, fastned the Herses, Sarasinasks and Cataracts.
1853. Stocqueler, Milit. Encycl., Cataract, a portcullis.
4. Pathol. An opacity of the crystalline lens of the eye, or of the capsule of the lens, or of both, ‘producing more or less impairment of sight, but never complete blindness’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.).
[App. a fig. use of the sense portcullis. In Fr., the physician A. Paré (c. 1550) has ‘cataracte ou coulisse’; and Cotgr. (1611), has coulisse ‘a portcullis … also a web in the eye,’ the notion being that even when the eye is open, the cataract obstructs vision, as the portcullis does a gateway. (But if originally in med.L., it might arise from the sense ‘window-grating’ fenestra clathrata, Du Cange.)]
1547. Boorde, Brev. Health, lxvi. 28 b. A Catharact, the which doth let a man to se perfytly.
1575. Turberv., Falconrie, 235. Ther is a Cataract, which doth light upon the eyes of a Hawke.
1599. A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physicke, 54/2. For Catarracts or Pearles of the Eyes.
1611. Florio, Catarátta … called a Cataract or a pin and web.
1782. W. Heberden, Comm., lxvi. (1806), 329. A cataract is always preceded by a dimness, or blue cloudiness of objects.
1791. Boswell, Johnson (1831), I. 221. To understand that he would couch her gratis if the cataract was ripe.
1822. Good, Study Med. (1844), III. 168. Simple cataract comes on without pain.
1876. trans. Wagner’s Gen. Pathol., 40. Cataract is especially transmissible in the female line.
fig. 1630. Brathwait, Eng. Gentlew. (1641), 319. Those thicke Cataracts of earthly vanities are dispersed.
a. 1711. Ken, Hymnotheo, Poet. Wks. 1721, III. 41. Your eyes thus dimly will Things Heav’nly see, Till they from sensual Cataracts are free.
† 5. A brake for flax. Obs. rare.
a. 1693. Urquhart, Rabelais, III. l. 401. Athwart those Cataracts they break and bruise to very Trash the woody parcels.
6. Mech. A form of governor for single-acting steam-engines, in which the stroke is regulated by the flow of water through an opening.
1832. Babbage, Econ. Manuf., iii. (ed. 3), 27. Another very beautiful contrivance for regulating the number of strokes made by a steam-engine … is called the Cataract.
1859. Rankine, Steam Engine, 58. A pump brake of a simple kind is exemplified in the apparatus called the ‘cataract.’
† 7. (See quot.) Obs.
a. 1400[?]. Rel. Ant., I. 9. cataracta, a catarac of the ethere, i. via subterranea.
8. attrib. and Comb., as cataract patient, curls, wig, etc.; cataract-like adj.; cataract-wise adv.; cataract-bird, an Australian bird (see quot.); cataract-knife, cataract-needle, a knife and needle used in the extraction of cataract, or in couching.
1865. J. G. Wood, Homes without H., xii. 215. The bird … is called … the *Cataract Bird (Origma rubricata), because it is always found where water-courses rush through rocky ground [in Australia].
1864. Sala, in Daily Tel., 21 Nov. That beaming belle … with the *Cataract curls.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 2. 12. An avalanche pours *cataract-like over a ledge.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 399/2. A *Cataract-needle … is used to draw up the Cataract off the sight of the eye while it is cuting away.
1882. Good, Study Med. (1844), III. 165. A *cataract patient sees a lighted candle as if it were involved in a cloud.
1870. Athenæum, 31 Dec., 881/1. Boileau Despréaux himself, in his court suit and his *cataract wig.
1879. J. Hawthorne, Laugh. Mill, 39. The stream fell *cataract-wise into a deep pool below.
