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
On another occasion we met the simoom, the purple haze in rushing past threatening suffocation.
From The World's Greatest Books — Volume 19 — Travel and Adventure by Hammerton, John Alexander, Sir
It is like the simoom of the desert—producing a feeling of intense weariness.
From Wild Life in a Southern County by Jefferies, Richard
They have plenty of destructive energy, it is true, but the simoom has all this and much else besides.
From Wealth of the World's Waste Places and Oceania by Gilson, Jewett Castello
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
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.
