nullah

English

Borrowed from Bengali নালা (nala), Hindi नाला (nālā), from Sanskrit नाडी (nāḍī).

nullah (plural nullahs)

(chiefly South Asia) A stream-bed, ravine, or other watercourse; a drain for rain or floodwater. [from 17th c.]
- 1849, Brigadier Lockwood, Report of 2nd Cavalry Division at Battle of Goojerat:
  About this time a large gole of horsemen came on towards me, and I proposed to charge; but as they turned at once from the fire of the guns, and as there was a nullah in front, I refrained from advancing after them.
- 1924 June 4, E[dward] M[organ] Forster, A Passage to India, London: Edward Arnold & Co., →OCLC:
  It was just after the exit from a bridge; the animal had probably come up out of the nullah.
- 2023 November 30, Oliver Franklin-Wallis, “Inside India’s Gargantuan Mission to Clean the Ganges River”, in Wired‎^[1], →ISSN:
  Until a few years ago, much of the city’s sewage was released untreated into the Ganges via public drains, or nullahs, which discharged along the same bank as the ghats, where people habitually bathe.
(Hong Kong) An open-air, concrete-lined channel for draining rain or wastewater; a storm drain.