virga

[vur-guh]

noun (used with a singular or plural verb) Meteorology.

streaks of water drops or ice particles falling out of a cloud and evaporating before reaching the ground (distinguished from praecipitatio).

Origin of virga

1935–40; < Latin: rod, streak

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for virga

Historical Examples of virga

Mr. Mason could not agree to the motion, notwithstanding it was favorable to Virga.
The Journal of Negro History, Volume 3, 1918
Various
In the Exeter Domesday virga not virgata is the common word.
Domesday Book and Beyond
Frederic William Maitland
Ego vir videns paupertatem meam in virga indignationis ejus.
The Thoughts of Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal
Hence it follows that the quarter of an acre is a rood or yard or virga or virgata of land.
Domesday Book and Beyond
Frederic William Maitland
In the Exchequer book an abbreviated form is used; but virga appears in i. 216 b.
Domesday Book and Beyond
Frederic William Maitland

British Dictionary definitions for virga

virga

noun

(sometimes functioning as plural) meteorol wisps of rain or snow, seen trailing from clouds, that evaporate before reaching the earth

Word Origin for virga

C20: from Latin: streak

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

virga in Science

virga

[vûr′gə]

Light wisps of precipitation streaming from a cloud but evaporating before reaching the ground, especially when the air below is low in humidity.