barā^thrum, i, n., = βάραθρον, an abyss, chasm, a deep pit, the Lower World (mostly poet; cf. vorago), Plaut. Rud. 2, 7, 12: o barathrum ubi nunc es? ut ego te usurpem lubens (words of one in despair), id. Bacch. 1, 2, 41; Lucr. 3, 966; Cat. 68, 108; 68, 117; 95, 5.

—Esp., of the infernal regions: ferri in barathrum, Lucr. 6, 606: imus barathri gurges (Charybdis), Verg. A. 3, 421; 8, 245; Sil. 9, 497: poena barathri, Val. Fl. 2, 86; a pit made by art, a deep dungeon, Vitr. 10, 22, 11.

— Trop.: quid enim differt, barathrone Dones quidquid habes, an numquam utare paratis? thou throwest into the abyss, i. e. squanderest, Hor. S. 2, 3, 166.

— Transf. Jocosely or satirically, a maw (as insatiable), Plaut. Curc. 1, 2, 29; Mart. 1, 88, 4.

—Hence Horace calls a greedy man barathrum macelli, an abyss, gulf of the provision market, Ep. 1, 15, 31.

— In mal. part., Mart. 3, 81, 1.