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• Great Depression
  Great Depression

  noun

  the economic crisis and period of low business activity in the U.S. and other countries, roughly beginning with the stock-market crash in October, 1929, and continuing through most of the 1930s.
• Depression, Great
  Depression, Great

  The great slowdown in the American economy, the worst in the country's history, which began in 1929 and lasted until the early 1940s. Many banks and businesses failed, and millions of people lost their jobs. (See Dust Bowl; fireside chats; Hoovervilles; New Deal; Okies; Franklin D. Roosevelt; and stock market Crash of 1929.)

Great Depression

American  

noun

1. the economic crisis and period of low business activity in the U.S. and other countries, roughly beginning with the stock-market crash in October, 1929, and continuing through most of the 1930s.

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Depression, Great Cultural  

1. The great slowdown in the American economy, the worst in the country's history, which began in 1929 and lasted until the early 1940s. Many banks and businesses failed, and millions of people lost their jobs. (See Dust Bowl; fireside chats; Hoovervilles; New Deal; Okies; Franklin D. Roosevelt; and stock market Crash of 1929.)

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Usage

When and what was the Great Depression? The Great Depression was a worldwide economic crisis that lasted for much of the 1930s. It heavily impacted the United States, where millions of people faced unemployment, homelessness, and poverty. In economics, a depression is a period during which business, employment, and stock market values fall to very low levels for a significant amount of time (typically more than three years). The Great in Great Depression refers to the fact that it was the worst depression in U. S. history. The start of the Great Depression is often cited as the U. S. stock market crash of 1929, but its causes are complex. Its effects were also complex and widespread and are still discussed. Some can even be seen today in the form of government programs and agencies created to address the crisis at the time.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Great Depression

Unforeseen events could eventually leave them dependent on public assistance, re-creating the kind of poverty that Social Security was designed to prevent after the Great Depression.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026

Builders were meeting a demand that had been on the rise since the Great Depression.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026

Her mysterious, shifting face—at first glance deeply troubled, at second stoically resolute—encapsulated the hopes and fears of Americans during the Great Depression.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026

President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, designed to respond to the Great Depression, had expanded the federal government’s role in the economy and empowered organized labor.

From Salon ● Jun. 29, 2026

The city was inundated with middle-class arrivals from the Midwest, especially in the years leading up to the Great Depression.

From "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal" by Eric Schlosser