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
He had not lived long enough under the hot breath of the simoom to have all the early associations withered and crisped.
From The Boys of '61 or, Four Years of Fighting, Personal Observations with the Army and Navy by Coffin, Charles Carleton
There is nothing to be heard but the sharp whistle of the dry snow—the same dreary music which accompanies the African simoom.
From Northern Travel Summer and Winter Pictures of Sweden, Denmark and Lapland by Taylor, Bayard
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 Imbert de Saint-Amand, Arthur Léon, baron
Among these winds are the simoom and sirocco.
From Meteorology or Weather Explained by M'Pherson, J. G.
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.
