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• Dust Bowl
  Dust Bowl

  noun

  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.
• dust bowl
  dust bowl

  noun

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

Dust Bowl

American  

[duhst bohl] / ˈdʌst ˌboʊl /

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.

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Dust Bowl ¹ British  

noun

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

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dust bowl ² British  

noun

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

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Dust Bowl Cultural  

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.

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Etymology

Origin of Dust Bowl

An Americanism dating back to 1935–40

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Dust Bowl dust bowl

It is home to several historic structures that are among the last remaining migrant camp buildings from the 1930s and ’40s Dust Bowl era in California.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026

The roughly two-acre park would be the first to directly highlight the Dust Bowl and migrant farming camps of the Great Depression, state officials said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026

The novel tells the story of a family of Oklahoma tenant farmers who lose their land during the Dust Bowl and migrate to California in search of work and stability.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 12, 2025

Last week, Chicago and El Paso were hit with the worst dust storms they’ve seen since the literal Dust Bowl.

From Slate ● May 22, 2025

The Grapes of Wrath, the classic novel about the Dust Bowl and the migration of Oklahoma farmers to California, ends with death and a glimmer of renewed life.

From "Enrique's Journey" by Sonia Nazario

Delhi, where temperatures in May hit 45C for several days running, is at particular risk of becoming "a dust bowl with extreme heat load," he said.

From Barron's ● May 31, 2026

"When marketers and publicists realized that TikTok was their best hope for attention, they swarmed, turning the app into a conventional promotional dust bowl."

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2024

Perhaps irony, like water for the swimming pool, is a resource that dries up seasonally in these parts, leaving only a dust bowl of surly resentment and some tatty deckchairs behind.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2023

He said it would be necessary to plant wild grass in the empty reservoir to prevent it from turning into a toxic dust bowl.

From New York Times ● Jun. 11, 2023

Any farmer doing it would turn their land into a dust bowl within twelve years.

From "The Martian" by Andy Weir