Somme
[sawm]
- a river in N France, flowing NW to the English Channel: battles, World War I, 1916, 1918; World War II, 1944. 150 miles (241 km) long.
- a department in N France. 2424 sq. mi. (6280 sq. km). Capital: Amiens.
Show More
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for somme
Contemporary Examples
Smith survived the night patrol, and met Tolkien again on the fringes of the Battle of the Somme that summer.
Just weeks before the Somme, British soldiers put down the rising, leaving much of the city in ruins.
In The Missing of the Somme, one war, the Great War, is more directly his subject.
“The Missing of the Somme” is carved onto the Thiepval Memorial.
The Missing of the Somme was not merely written as a diversion from rewriting Tender is the Night.
Historical Examples
When I last wrote, on the Somme in 1915, I was sickening with typhoid fever.
Ballads of a BohemianRobert W. Service
This retirement on the Somme is clever, though it may tell on the morale of his men.
War Letters of a Public-School BoyPaul Jones.
But it is undeniable that they were badly "rattled" on the Somme.
War Letters of a Public-School BoyPaul Jones.
Never shall I forget my first sight of the Somme in summer-time.
An Onlooker in France 1917-1919William Orpen
But the real terribleness of the Somme was not in the towns or on the roads.
An Onlooker in France 1917-1919William Orpen
Somme
- a department of N France, in Picardy region. Capital: Amiens. Pop: 557 061 (2003 est). Area: 6277 sq km (2448 sq miles)
- a river in N France, rising in Aisne department and flowing west to Amiens, then northwest to the English Channel: scene of heavy fighting in World War I. Length: 245 km (152 miles)
Show More
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012