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catchment

[kach-muh nt]
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noun
  1. the act of catching water.
  2. something for catching water, as a reservoir or basin.
  3. the water that is caught in such a catchment.
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Origin of catchment

First recorded in 1840–50; catch + -ment
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for catchment

Historical Examples

  • Of the whole rainfall on the catchment basin, a part only finds its way to the stream.

    Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 14, Slice 1

    Various

  • The catchment basin is surrounded by a ridge or watershed line, continuous except at the point where the river finds an outlet.

  • The noblest and most-varied scenery in the north-west Himalaya is in the catchment area of the Jhelam.

  • It therefore belongs to the catchment basin of the Sutlej and not to the Indus, and the Tseti-la is a pass of secondary order.

  • He was off to see to another of his father's interests—that "catchment area" far away up in the mountains.

    Mushroom Town

    Oliver Onions

British Dictionary definitions for catchment

catchment

noun
  1. the act of catching or collecting water
  2. a structure in which water is collected
  3. the water so collected
  4. British the intake of a school from one catchment area
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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

Word Origin and History for catchment

n.

1844, from catch (v.) + -ment.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper