cataract

A (large) waterfall, specifically one flowing over the edge of a cliff.

The cataracts on the Nile helped to compartment Upper Egypt.

This Elephantis being an Iſland, is inhabited beneath the lovveſt cataract or fall of vvater three miles, and aboue Syene 16: […]

A flood of water; specifically, steep rapids in a river.

[S]uch a violent ſtorme of raine vnburthened it ſelfe neere this place, and cauſed ſuch a ſudden Deluge and Cattaract, that a Carrauan of tvvo thouſand Camels periſht, and vvere caſt avvay by it.

Locksley Hall, that in the distance overlooks the sandy tracts, / And the hollow ocean-ridges roaring into cataracts.

An overwhelming downpour or rush; a flood.

His cataract of eloquence

Cataracts of declamation thunder here, / There foreſts of no-meaning ſpread the page / In vvhich all comprehenſion vvanders loſt; […]

A type of governor used in single-acting steam engines, where a flow of water through an opening regulates the stroke.

Synonym of waterspout (“a whirlwind that forms over water”).

They ſay furthermore 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 cataractes of heauen whiche were all opened at Noes fludde.

Blovv vvind & cracke your cheekes, rage, blovv / You caterickes, & Hircanios ſpout til you haue drencht, / The ſteeples drovvn'd the cockes, […]

Of a river, etc.: to fall in the form of a waterfall.

[N]o river should cataract larger than the Clyde.

After a short rest, we moved on over a quiet space of water to the third and greatest fall, where the whole body of the Nile precipitates itself from between two towering cliffs, foaming and plashing, and, in short, cataracting very respectably.

To cause (something) to pour or rush like a waterfall.

My Poems have been reviewed. The Monthly has cataracted panegyric on me; the Critical cascaded it, and the Analytical dribbled it with civility.

Synonym of portcullis (“a gate in the form of a grating which is lowered into place at the gateway of a castle, a fort, etc.”); also, a window grating.

Others did fortifie and rampire their Walls, […] assured the Port-culleys, fasten'd the Herses, Sarasinesks and Cataracks, placed their Centries, and doubled their Patrouilee.

A clouding of the lens in the eye leading to a decrease in vision.

[T]her is a Caratact which doth light vpon the eyes of a Hawke, whome we may tearme a ſuffuſion, a miſchiefe not ſafely remoued, and diuers times impoſſible to be recured, as namely whẽ [when] it is growen too thicke, and ouerlong hath bin ſuffered in the eye, without ſeeking remedie for it: […]

Rarely, a dense, swollen neglected cataract precipitates an angle-closure glaucoma.

A clouding of the lens in the eye leading to a decrease in vision.

Thoſe filmes vvhich darkened the eye of the mindes, are remoued, thoſe thicke Cataracts of earthly vanities are diſperſed and diſpelled, and a nevv light into a nevv heart infuſed.

A tool used for breaking flax; a brake.

Some modern Pantagruelists, to shun and avoid that manual Labour, which such a separating and partitional Work would of necessity require, employ certain Catarratick Instruments, […] and athwart those Cataracts they break and bruise to very Trash the woody parcels [of the fictional herb “pantagruelion”], thereby to preserve the better the Fibres, which are the precious and excellent parts.