drouth

/drauθ/

Thân thiện

A farmer looks out over a field cracked by drouth.

Definition

1. Noun:
   • A prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall, leading to a shortage of water: This is the primary meaning, referring to a significant and extended lack of precipitation.
   • A prolonged shortage or scarcity of something non-physical: A figurative extension meaning a long period without a specified thing or event.

Usage and Examples

• Noun (Meteorological):

  • The severe drouth devastated the crops and led to water rationing.
  • Years of drouth have caused the lake's water level to drop dramatically.

• Noun (Figurative):

  • The team's victory ended a five-year drouth of championship titles.
  • The writer suffered a creative drouth and couldn't produce any new work.

Advanced Usage

• "To break a drouth": To end a period of scarcity or lack.
  • The recent rains have finally broken the long drouth.
• "Drouth-stricken": Severely affected by drought. (Note: This is a compound adjective listed here as a variant).
  • Aid was sent to the drouth-stricken region.

Variants and Related Words

• Drought (n): The standard and more common modern spelling for "drouth." Both words share identical meanings.
• Drouthy (adj, archaic/regional): Dry, thirsty, or pertaining to drought.
• Drouthiness (n, archaic/regional): The state of being dry or arid.

Synonyms

• Dry spell: A brief period of dry weather.
• Aridity: The state of being extremely dry.
• Famine (when referring to resulting food shortage).
• Scarcity: The state of being in short supply.

Antonyms

• Deluge: A severe flood.
• Downpour: A heavy fall of rain.
• Abundance: A very large quantity of something.
• Surfeit: An excessive amount.

Notes on Usage

• "Drouth" is an older, regional, or poetic variant of the more common word "drought." In contemporary English, "drought" is the predominant spelling.
• Both "drouth" (pronounced /draʊθ/) and "drought" (pronounced /draʊt/) are considered correct, but "drought" is used almost exclusively in modern writing and formal contexts.

Học thuật

Noun

1. a shortage of rainfall
   • farmers most affected by the drought hope that there may yet be sufficient rain early in the growing season
2. a prolonged shortage
   • when England defeated Pakistan it ended a ten-year drought

Từ đồng nghĩa

• drought