billabong

[ bil-uh-bawng, -bong ]

nounAustralian.
  1. a branch of a river flowing away from the main stream but leading to no other body of water; a blind or dead-end channel.

  2. a creek bed holding water only in the rainy season; a dried-up watercourse.

  1. a stagnant backwater or slough formed by receding floodwater.

Origin of billabong

1
1830–40; <Wiradjuri bilabaŋ creek that runs only during the rainy season, equivalent to bila river + baŋ possessive suffix

Words Nearby billabong

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use billabong in a sentence

  • He and Mitchell fished along the billabong all the afternoon; I fished a little, and lay about the camp and read.

    Over the Sliprails | Henry Lawson
  • I thought you'd sing anthems on the very word billabong all through the voyage, especially in your bath.

    Back To Billabong | Mary Grant Bruce
  • So they passed through Cunjee, and wheeled to the right towards the open country—the country that meant billabong.

    Back To Billabong | Mary Grant Bruce
  • Only, motors and billabong don't go hand in hand—we've always stuck to horses, haven't we, Mr. Jim?

    Back To Billabong | Mary Grant Bruce
  • The years had brought a good deal of sober sense to Bosun and Monarch, but motors were still unfamiliar objects on billabong.

    Back To Billabong | Mary Grant Bruce

British Dictionary definitions for billabong

billabong

/ (ˈbɪləˌbɒŋ) /


nounAustralian
  1. a backwater channel that forms a lagoon or pool

  2. a branch of a river running to a dead end

Origin of billabong

1
C19: from a native Australian language, from billa river + bong dead

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012