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drought

[drout]
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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

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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

  • 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

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.