Cataracta, cataractæ. f. g. & hic cataractes, masc. gen. Liu.A porteculieis: also a great fall of water from a high broken place: a disease of the eyes, when a tough humout like a gelly droppeth out.Cataractæ.Things to stoppe the course of water: sloudgates: weares: dammes: ssuees.Cataractæ aues.Called also Diomedeæ.
Lewis and Short: Latin dictionary
cătăracta (also cătarracta), ae, f. (cătarractes, ae, m., Plin. and Sol.; v. the foll.), = o( katarra/kths or katara/kths. I.Lit., a waterfall, in gen.; the waterfalls of the Euphrates, Plin. 5, 24, 20, 85.—Hence, B.Meton. and kat) e)coxh/u, the celebrated fall of the Nile on the southern borders of Egypt, the Cataract: novissimo catarracte, Plin. 5, 9, 10, 54.—Acc. catarracten, Plin. 5, 9, 10, 59; Sol. 32: pervenit ad cataractam, Vitr. 8, 2, 6.—Plur. fem.: cataractae, nobilis insigni spectaculo locus, Sen. Q. N. 4, 2, 4: praecipites cataractae, Luc. 10, 317; Amm. 22, 15, 9.—II. In milit. lang., a drawbridge, portcullis, Veg. Mil. 4, 4; Liv. 27, 28, 10 and 11.—III.A water-sluice, floodgate, Plin. Ep. 10, 61 (69), 4; Rutil. 1, 481 Zumpt.—IV.A waterbird (that pounces down quickly), Plin. 10, 44, 61, 126.