What does drought mean?
Definitions for drought
drought
This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word drought.
Princeton's WordNet
drought, drouthnoun
a shortage of rainfall
"farmers most affected by the drought hope that there may yet be sufficient rain early in the growing season"
drought, drouthnoun
a prolonged shortage
"when England defeated Pakistan it ended a ten-year drought"
Wiktionary
droughtnoun
A period of below average rain fall, longer and more severe than a dry spell
droughtnoun
A longer than expected term without success, particularly in sport.
Etymology: drugaþ
Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
DROUGHTnoun
Etymology: drugode, Saxon; drowth, Scottish.
O earth! I will befriend thee more with rain
Than youthful April shall with all his showers:
In Summer’s drought I’ll drop upon thee still. William Shakespeare, Tit. Andr.Great droughts in Summer, lasting ’till the end of August, some gentle showers upon them, and then some dry weather, portend a pestilent Summer the year following. Francis Bacon.
To south the Persian bay,
And inaccessible th’ Arabian drought. John Milton, Parad. Reg.As torrents in the drowth of Summer fail,
So perisht man from death shall never rise. George Sandys.They were so learned in natural philosophy, that they foretold earthquakes and storms, great droughts, and great plagues. William Temple.
In a drought the thirsty creatures cry,
And gape upon the gather’d clouds for rain. Dryden.Upon a shower, after a drought, earthworms and landsnails innumerable come out of their lurking places. John Ray.
His carcase, pin’d with hunger and with drought. John Milton.
One whose drought
Yet scarce allay’d, still eyes the current stream,
Whose liquid murmur heard, new thirst excites. John Milton, P. L.
Wikipedia
Drought
A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.: 1157 This means that a drought is "a moisture deficit relative to the average water availability at a given location and season". A drought can last for days, months or years. Drought often exerts substantial impacts on the ecosystems and agriculture of affected regions, and causes harm to the local economy. Annual dry seasons in the tropics significantly increase the chances of a drought developing and subsequent wildfires. Periods of heat can significantly worsen drought conditions by hastening evaporation of water vapour. Drought is a recurring feature of the climate in most parts of the world, becoming more extreme and less predictable due to climate change, which dendrochronological studies date back to 1900. There are three kinds of drought effects, environmental, economic and social. Environmental effects include the drying of wetlands, more and larger wildfires, loss of biodiversity. Economic consequences include disruption of water supplies for municipal economies; lower agricultural, forest, game, and fishing outputs; higher food-production costs; and problems with water supply for the energy sector. Social and health costs include the negative effect on the health of people directly exposed to this phenomenon (excessive heat waves), high food costs, stress caused by failed harvests, water scarcity, etc. Prolonged droughts have caused mass migrations and humanitarian crisis. Many plant species, such as those in the family Cactaceae (or cacti), have drought tolerance adaptations like reduced leaf area and waxy cuticles to enhance their ability to tolerate drought. Some others survive dry periods as buried seeds. Semi-permanent drought produces arid biomes such as deserts and grasslands. Most arid ecosystems have inherently low productivity. The most prolonged drought ever in the world in recorded history continues in the Atacama Desert in Chile (400 years). Throughout history, humans have usually viewed droughts as "disasters" due to the impact on food availability and the rest of society. Humans have often tried to explain droughts as either a natural disaster, caused by humans, or the result of supernatural forces.
ChatGPT
drought
A drought is a prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall, leading to a shortage of water in a particular region. This natural disaster can be severe enough to cause issues in agriculture, ecosystems, and economies, due to the scarcity of water. The severity and impact of droughts can be exacerbated by higher temperatures associated with climate change.
Webster Dictionary
Droughtnoun
dryness; want of rain or of water; especially, such dryness of the weather as affects the earth, and prevents the growth of plants; aridity
Droughtnoun
thirst; want of drink
Droughtnoun
scarcity; lack
Etymology: [OE. droght, drougth, dru, AS. druga, from drugian to dry. See Dry, and cf. Drouth, which shows the original final sound.]
Wikidata
Drought
Drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply whether surface or underground water. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region. Although droughts can persist for several years, even a short, intense drought can cause significant damage and harm the local economy. Many plant species, such as cacti, have adaptations such as reduced leaf area and waxy cuticles to enhance their ability to tolerate drought. Some others survive dry periods as buried seeds. Semi-permanent drought produces arid biomes such as deserts and grasslands. Most arid ecosystems have inherently low productivity. This global phenomenon has a widespread impact on agriculture. Lengthy periods of drought have long been a key trigger for mass migration and played a key role in a number of ongoing migrations and other humanitarian crises in the Horn of Africa and the Sahel.
Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
Drought
drowt, Drouth, drowth, n. dryness: want of rain or of water: thirst.—ns. Drought′iness, Drouth′iness.—adjs. Drought′y, Drouth′y, full of drought: very dry: wanting rain, thirsty. [A.S. drúgathe, dryness—drúgian, to dry.]
Surnames Frequency by Census Records
DROUGHT
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Drought is ranked #64200 in terms of the most common surnames in America.
The Drought surname appeared 310 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Drought.
98.3% or 305 total occurrences were White.
Matched Categories
Numerology
Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of drought in Chaldean Numerology is: 4
Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of drought in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3
Examples of drought in a Sentence
So many people were not informed of what to do in a drought like this. I thought there are people who don't speak English, people that are elderly, they're pregnant, have diabetes, that are ill, everyday people. It doesn't have any prejudice. It affects everybody from the low-income to the higher-income person.
Brazil had a historic drought last year that significantly hurt the orange crop that's used to produce the orange juice, they're not going to have exportable supplies at the [ typical ] level.
Finance Minister Sommai Phasee:
Famers affected by drought will now receive help to alleviate debt and will have money to spend for households in case of emergencies.
North Korea citizens decision to officially report the drought in North Korea citizens internal media is remarkable, it's a signal to both domestic and foreign audience that probably something will go bad later this year. So they will probably apply for foreign aid.
Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus:
One of the things that preceded the failure of the nation state of Syria, the rise of ISIS, was the effect of climate change and the mega drought the affected that region, wiped out farmers, drove people to cities, created a humanitarian crisis, it created the symptoms – or rather the conditions – of extreme poverty that lead now to the rise of ISIL and this extreme violence.
Popularity rank by frequency of use
References
Translations for drought
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
- droogteAfrikaans
- جفافArabic
- quraqlıqAzerbaijani
- ҡоролоҡBashkir
- засухаBelarusian
- сушаBulgarian
- খরাBengali
- sec'horBreton
- seca, sequera, secadaCatalan, Valencian
- suchoCzech
- sychder, sychdwrWelsh
- Trockenzeit, Trockenheit, DürreGerman
- ξηρασίαGreek
- trosekeco, sekegecoEsperanto
- sequía, secaSpanish
- põudEstonian
- lehorteBasque
- خشکسالیPersian
- kuivuusFinnish
- sécheresseFrench
- triomachIrish
- secura, secaGalician
- kyve'yGuaraní
- בצורתHebrew
- सूखाHindi
- sechrèsHaitian Creole
- aszályHungarian
- երաշտArmenian
- kekeringanIndonesian
- þurrkarIcelandic
- siccitàItalian
- 旱魃Japanese
- გვალვაGeorgian
- құрғақшылықKazakh
- 가뭄Korean
- siccitasLatin
- DréchentLuxembourgish, Letzeburgesch
- sausraLithuanian
- sausumsLatvian
- taurakiMāori
- сушаMacedonian
- kemarauMalay
- nixfaMaltese
- tørkeNorwegian
- droogteDutch
- tørkeNorwegian Nynorsk
- secadaOccitan
- suszaPolish
- secaPortuguese
- ch'akiyQuechua
- secetăRomanian
- засуха, сушь, засушливостьRussian
- suša, сушаSerbo-Croatian
- suchoSlovak
- sušaSlovene
- shangwaShona
- thatësirëAlbanian
- torkaSwedish
- kiangazi, ukameSwahili
- ภัยแล้งThai
- guraklykTurkmen
- kuraklıkTurkish
- засухаUkrainian
- سوکھاUrdu
- hạn hánVietnamese
- lesigVolapük
- 乾旱Chinese
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