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
The phenomenon that had broken over the arenaceous couch, upon which slept the four castaways, was neither more nor less than a “sandstorm”; or, to give it its Arab title, a simoom.
From The Boy Slaves by Reid, Mayne
We are told that on the 17th of June, 1859, there was much more of a genuine simoom.
From Life at Puget Sound: With Sketches of Travel in Washington Territory, British Columbia, Oregon and California by Leighton, Caroline C.
And on the desert in the hot simoom Writ fervent words to warn you of your way.
From Montezuma An Epic on the Origin and Fate of the Aztec Nation by Richmond, Hiram Hoyt
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
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.
