drought
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
See also: Drought
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]- drouth (Scotland and Northern England, otherwise archaic or poetic)
- druft (Northern England)
Etymology
[edit]From Middle English droghte, drouȝte, druhhþe, druȝþe, drouȝth, from Old English drūgaþ. Cognate with Dutch droogte, Low German Dröögde. By surface analysis, dry -th.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (UK, US) IPA(key): /dɹaʊt/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- (Canada) IPA(key): [dɹʌʊt]
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -aʊt
Noun
[edit]drought (countable and uncountable, plural droughts)
- A period of unusually low rainfall, longer and more severe than a dry spell.
- 2012 January, Donald Worster, “A Drier and Hotter Future”, in American Scientist[1], volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 26 January 2012, page 70:
- Phoenix and Lubbock are both caught in severe drought, and it is going to get much worse. We may see many such [dust] storms in the decades ahead, along with species extinctions, radical disturbance of ecosystems, and intensified social conflict over land and water. Welcome to the Anthropocene, the epoch when humans have become a major geological and climatic force.
- (by extension, informal) A longer than expected term without success, particularly in sport.
- Synonym: losing streak
- Antonym: winning streak
- (archaic) dryness, aridness, dry heat
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 31:40:
- Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes.
- 1814, The Right Honorable Sir John Sinclair, chapter XI, in Appendix to the General Report of the Agricultural State, and Political Circumstances, of Scotland, page 16:
- The consequences are, that a few days of severe drought, in the early parts of summer, or even when the grain is ripening, is sometimes fatal to the crop on moss.
- 1817, Adam Smith, chapter V, in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, volume 2, page 344:
- The seasons most unfavourable to the crop are those of excessive drought or excessive rain.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]period of unusually low rain fall
|
Middle English
[edit]Noun
[edit]drought
- Alternative form of droghte
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms suffixed with -th
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/aʊt
- Rhymes:English/aʊt/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English informal terms
- English terms with archaic senses
- en:Climatology
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns