simoom
Britishnoun
Etymology
Origin of simoom
from Arabic samūm poisonous, from sam poison, from Aramaic sammā poison
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.
If you happen to be in Africa and stuck in a “hot, dry, suffocating sand-wind” which sweeps across the deserts at intervals during the spring, you should know that you are in a simoom.
From Time ● Mar. 20, 2014
It was late in the afternoon when we reached the spot again, and a wind which threatened simoom had covered the heart-shaped footmarks made by our own and other camels, as with a tidal wave.
From Lord John in New York by A. M. (Alice Muriel) Williamson
Quickly it resumes its course as if urged by a mysterious force, and soon the terrible simoom overwhelms and destroys it.
From Marie Antoinette and the Downfall of Royalty by Arthur Léon, baron Imbert de Saint-Amand
Perhaps the full blast of the simoom may last an hour—perhaps two or even three hours.
From Wealth of the World's Waste Places and Oceania by Jewett Castello Gilson
The sand of which the "dunes" are composed is generally so fine that it is readily blown by a sharp wind; and they were as troublesome as the sands of Sahara in a simoom.
From Dikes and Ditches Young America in Holland and Belguim by Oliver Optic
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
