Advertisement

Advertisement

View synonyms for Dust Bowl

Dust Bowl

[duhst bohl]

noun

  1. a period, throughout the 1930s, when waves of severe drought and dust storms in the North American prairies occurred, having devastating consequences for the residents, livestock, and agriculture there.

    When the Dust Bowl began, the Great Depression was already underway—it was one disaster on top of another.

  2. the region that suffered from these waves of drought and dust storms, including the entire U.S. Midwest and, in Canada, the southern prairies of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

    Our Oklahoma panhandle was smack dab in the center of that heartless Dust Bowl.

  3. (lowercase),  any similar dry region elsewhere.

    Where we see the tragic formation of dust bowls in Asia and Africa, overgrazing is believed to be the main culprit.



dust bowl

1

noun

  1. a semiarid area in which the surface soil is exposed to wind erosion and dust storms occur

“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

Dust Bowl

2

noun

  1. the area of the south central US that became denuded of topsoil by wind erosion during the droughts of the mid-1930s

“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

Dust Bowl

  1. A parched region of the Great Plains, including parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas, where a combination of drought and soil erosion created enormous dust storms in the 1930s. The novel The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, describes the plight of the “Okies” and “Arkies” uprooted by the drought and forced to migrate to California.

Discover More

Word History and Origins

Origin of Dust Bowl1

An Americanism dating back to 1935–40
Discover More

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.

Though such matters were not discussed at the dinner table, Fonda’s father raised money for Democratic candidates and starred in politically imbued films such as “The Grapes of Wrath,” about the exploitation of migrant workers during the Dust Bowl, and “12 Angry Men,” which focused on prejudice, groupthink and the importance of due process during the McCarthy era.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

“He was learning all these traditional Appalachian instruments, and I said, ‘That’s awesome because my house is set in the Dust Bowl.’”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

A child of the Dust Bowl, Owens was born in Texas and spent much of his childhood in Arizona before popping up in Bakersfield‘s nascent music club scene. He brought a twangy sound to country ballads, and by the 1950s and 1960s, that sound had turned his city into a western rival to Nashville. Some of his hits included “Together Again,” “Crying Time,” “Love’s Gonna Live Here,” “I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail” and “Under Your Spell Again.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Original tale “Scarecrow: The Reaping,” which began at Universal Studios Florida, mixes in jump scares with more natural-seeming frights, such as the aforementioned simulated dust bowl.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

In the Great Plains, thousands abandoned their farms in the country’s “dust bowl” and headed for California.

Read more on Salon

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement


dustbindust bowler