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drought

[drout]
noun
  1. a period of dry weather, especially a long one that is injurious to crops.
  2. an extended shortage: a drought of good writing.
  3. Archaic. thirst.
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Also drouth [drouth] /draʊθ/.

Origin of drought

before 1000; Middle English; Old English drūgath, equivalent to drūg- (base of drȳge dry) + -ath -th1; cognate with Dutch droogte dryness
Can be confuseddraught drought (see pronunciation note at draught)

Synonyms for drought

2. scarcity, lack, want, dearth, paucity, famine.

Pronunciation note

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 [drout] /draʊt/ and [drouth] /draʊθ/ 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 [drout] /draʊt/ is common everywhere in educated speech, and is the usual printed form.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for drouth

Historical Examples of drouth

  • The drouth was aggravating in its duration and growing hardships.

    Trail's End

    George W. Ogden

  • Scene of the story is the prairie desert of the West in time of drouth.

    The Writing of the Short Story

    Lewis Worthington Smith

  • Nor drouth nor heat can much annoy when the heart beats young.

    Winning the Wilderness

    Margaret Hill McCarter

  • East and wast, the sign o' a blast; north and south, the sign o' a drouth.

    The Proverbs of Scotland

    Alexander Hislop

  • Johnny B. Destroyed we all are with the hunger and the drouth.

British Dictionary definitions for drouth

drought

noun
  1. a prolonged period of scanty rainfall
  2. a prolonged shortage
  3. an archaic or dialect word for thirst Archaic and Scot form: drouth
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Derived Formsdroughty, adjective

Word Origin for drought

Old English drūgoth; related to Dutch droogte; see dry
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 drouth

drought

n.

Old English drugað, drugoð "drought, dryness, desert," from Proto-Germanic *drugothaz, from Germanic root *dreug- "dry" (cf high/height) with *-itho, Germanic suffix for forming abstract nouns (see -th (2)). Drouth was a Middle English variant continued in Scottish and northern English dialect and in poetry.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
drouth in Science

drought

[drout]
  1. A long period of abnormally low rainfall, lasting up to several years.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.