noun
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a prolonged period of scanty rainfall
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a prolonged shortage
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Archaic and Scot form: drouth. an archaic or dialect word for thirst
Pronunciation
Drought and drouth, nouns derived from the adjective dry plus a suffix, are spellings that represent two phonetic developments of the same Old English word, and are pronounced and respectively. The latter pronunciation, therefore, is not a mispronunciation of drought. The now unproductive suffix -th1 and its alternate form -t were formerly used to derive nouns from adjectives or verbs, resulting in such pairs as drouth — drought from dry and highth—height (the former now obsolete) from high. In American English, drought with the pronunciation is common everywhere in educated speech, and is the usual printed form.
Usage
What does drought mean? A drought is a long period with no rain or unusually low levels of rain or other precipitation.Because weather and climate are different in different places throughout the world, there is no single definition of what counts as a drought. However, it always refers to a significant period of dry weather. Droughts have many harmful effects, including water shortages, crop failure, and in some cases famine, among other things. The word is often used in the phrase drought conditions, referring to very dry conditions resulting from a lack of rainfall.Drought can also be used in a figurative way to refer to an extended shortage of or long period without something, as in The city has the longest championship drought in all of sports. Example: The drought continued for more than three weeks and wildfires started to appear.
Other Word Forms
- droughty adjective
Etymology
Origin of drought
First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English drūgath, equivalent to drūg- (base of drȳge “dry”) + -ath noun suffix; cognate with Dutch droogte “dryness”; dry, -th 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Harry Styles has hinted he is about to end his four-year musical drought, with a series of cryptic billboards appearing in cities around the world including New York, Manchester, Palermo, São Paulo and Berlin.
From BBC
Rather than a drought, says Dr Felicity Davies, it meant there was a drip-feed of material during the band's hiatus, from solo projects and tours, to live streams from individual members.
From BBC
"Instead, we examined how extremes are spatially connected, which provides much more information about the patterns driving droughts and floods globally."
From Science Daily
Studies have also shown there is now what is known as "snow drought" during winter in many parts of the Himalayan region.
From BBC
The same strategy could also speed the development of crops that can better withstand disease, pests, and drought.
From Science Daily
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
