coulee
Americannoun
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Chiefly Western U.S. and Western Canada. a deep ravine or gulch, usually dry, that has been formed by running water.
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a small valley.
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a low-lying area.
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a small intermittent stream.
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Geology. a stream of lava.
noun
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a flow of molten lava
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such lava when solidified
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a dry stream valley, especially a long steep-sided gorge or ravine that once carried melt water from a glacier
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a small intermittent stream in such a ravine
Etymology
Origin of coulee
1800–10, < Canadian French, French: a flowing, noun use of feminine of coulé, past participle of couler to flow < Latin cōlāre to filter, strain, derivative of cōlum strainer, sieve; cf. colander, portcullis
Explanation
A coulee is a gully, stream, or ravine that's full of water. Bring your waterproof boots for the hike — the valley is full of coulees! The meaning of coulee varies regionally. In some places, a coulee is a flowing stream of volcanic lava. In the northwestern U.S. and Canada, it's a kind of trench or trough that fills with rainwater, but in the Midwest people might call any small body of water a coulee. And in Louisiana, it's spelled coulée. The word is North American in origin, from a French root meaning "to flow," and it was first used by 17th-century French trappers and explorers.
Vocabulary lists containing coulee
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.
Within a few days of the Bois Caïman meeting, some gens de couleur libres joined forces with rebelling enslaved people in an uprising against White colonists.
From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022
Thus, the Haitian Revolution did not bring lasting equality for all, but it did remove racial inequalities even though the gens de couleur libres brought an element of race into their views.
From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022
Principles of social equality, moreover, remained incomplete when former gens de couleur libres adopted the roles of the former plantation owners at the top of the social hierarchy.
From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022
The conflict between Whites and gens de couleur libres exploded in 1791, after Haiti’s White population refused to acknowledge the citizenship rights that France had extended to wealthy people of color.
From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022
Whether it was thus arriving in such glory, or that the place has really a most individual charm, I cannot say; but for me Sundalsoren is a memory entirely couleur de rose.
From Norway by Jungman, Beatrix
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.
