The roughly circular hole left after one astronomical body collides with another.

The moon is covered with craters, as are mars and mercury. Most of the smaller craters on earth have been eroded away.

The Caribbean Sea is believed to have been partly formed from the crater formed when an asteroid crashed into earth, killing the dinosaurs.

Cra"ter (kr?t?r), n. [L. crater, cratera, a mixing vessel, the mouth of a volcano, Gr. , fr. to mix; cf. Skr. to mix, ir to cook, r to cook. Cf. Crail, in Holy Grail.]

1.

The basinlike opening or mouth of a volcano, through which the chief eruption comes; similarly, the mouth of a gevser, about which a cone of silica is often built up.

2. Mil.

The pit left by the explosion of a mine.

3. Astron.

A constellation of the southen hemisphere; -- called also the Cup.

 

© Webster 1913.

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