cavern
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Old French caverne, from Latin caverna, from cavus (“hollow”).
Pronunciation
Noun
cavern (plural caverns)
- A large cave.
- An underground chamber.
- 1797, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “Kubla Khan: Or A Vision in a Dream”, in Christabel: Kubla Khan, a Vision: The Pains of Sleep, London: […] John Murray, […], by William Bulmer and Co. […], published 1816, →OCLC, page 55:
- In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree: / Where Alph, the sacred river, ran / Through caverns measureless to man / Down to a sunless sea.
Derived terms
Translations
large cave
|
underground chamber
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Verb
cavern (third-person singular simple present caverns, present participle caverning, simple past and past participle caverned)
- (transitive) To form a cavern or deep depression in.
- catacombs caverning the hillsides
- (transitive) To put into a cavern.
Anagrams
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from Old French
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ævə(ɹ)n
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- en:Caving
- en:Landforms