1800–10, < Spanish; akin to Latin arrūgia mine shaft
Ever see a dried out stream or brook that sometimes, after a good rain, is racing with water? That's an arroyo, or a creek that dries out and fills with water depending on the time of year and weather. The Arroyo Seco in Southern California is an example of a well-known arroyo. Its name, which translates from Spanish to mean "dry stream" is an apt way to describe what an arroyo is — dry at times, and flowing at others. An arroyo can be natural or man-made. The Los Angeles River, for example, is an arroyo that runs along a concrete channel and helps distribute fresh water to the city.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Lummis built his house, El Alisal, with rocks dragged out of the arroyo, and opened it for business, the business of entertaining L.A.’s visiting luminaries.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2024
“Flash, urban, and arroyo flooding is possible with the potential for significant impacts.”
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 17, 2023
"The water was so strong it pushed him into the arroyo," said Zamora, using the term for an usually dry riverbed that runs during heavy rain.
From Reuters ● Aug. 8, 2022
Boris, 29, ran across the muddy arroyo of the Rio Grande on Dec. 3 from Ciudad Juárez to El Paso.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 16, 2021
Up ahead, he could see where the highway dipped across an arroyo.
From "Ceremony:" by Leslie Marmon Silko
Zapatero's spokesman, Luis Arroyo, said "he will provide explanations before the judge" in relation to the jewels.
From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026
She also spread Theodore Payne’s Rainbow Mix wildflower seeds throughout the landscape, including California poppies, Arroyo lupine, Desert Bluebells and Clarkia.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026
Sheriff’s deputies even used ground-penetrating radar and cadaver dogs to search the property of his father, Ruben Flores, in Arroyo Grande in 2021.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2026
Authorities have been at the Arroyo Grande home of Susan Flores in San Luis Obispo County this week, scanning the ground for any signs of human decomposition.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2026
The highway snaked through green rolling hills past Nipomo, Arroyo Grande, and Pismo Beach until we reached San Luis Obispo.
From "Breaking Through" by Francisco Jiménez
Over a century, L.A.’s arroyos have drawn graffitists and their chroniclers — hobo, cholo and otherwise.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 11, 2023
To steer clear of the surveillance towers, people have pushed deeper into the mountains and now hunker down in arroyos and other crevices in the desert for longer periods of time.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 22, 2022
Washes and arroyos – drainage channels that are dry except during heavy rainstorms – can turn into raging currents within minutes, strong enough to carry away cars and people.
From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2021
It winds through an arid landscape of garbage-strewn arroyos, yucca and sagebrush, without paved roads or sewerage.
From New York Times ● Sep. 2, 2021
The earth was eroded to gray clay, and deep arroyos cut through the length of the valley between the mesas.
From "Ceremony:" by Leslie Marmon Silko
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.
