irrigation

[ir-i-gey-shuhn]

noun

1. the artificial application of water to land to assist in the production of crops.

2. Medicine/Medical.,  the flushing or washing out of anything with water or other liquid.

3. the state of being irrigated.

irrigation

1. Artificial provision of water to sustain growing plants.

Irrigation accounts for the greatest part of water usage in the western United States.

Other Word Forms

• irrigational adjective
• nonirrigation noun
• overirrigation noun
• preirrigation noun
• preirrigational adjective
• proirrigation adjective
• reirrigation noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of irrigation¹

First recorded in 1605–15, irrigation is from the Latin word irrigātiōn- (stem of irrigātiō ). See irrigate, -ion

Example Sentences

The research team is also refining vineyard management techniques, such as leaf removal, fertilization, and irrigation, to further enhance grape quality.

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Early farmers likely took advantage of this consistent flow by digging short canals to irrigate fields and date groves, allowing for productive farming without massive irrigation projects.

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The plants are growing lustily in late summer, although Kolding only waters them once a week on Saturdays for an hour with drip irrigation.

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As Ms. Gaul shows through wide-ranging detective work, Egyptian farmers were obliged to rely on artificial fertilizers and year-round irrigation after successive efforts to dam the Nile eventually shut down the river’s age-old fertilization cycle.

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Williams said those irrigation methods worked in concert with nature, the exact opposite of how Los Angeles has drilled wells to extract water that Mother Earth accumulated over centuries in her “womb.”

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