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virga

[vur-guh]
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noun (used with a singular or plural verb) Meteorology.
  1. streaks of water drops or ice particles falling out of a cloud and evaporating before reaching the ground (distinguished from praecipitatio).
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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

  • 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.

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

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]
  1. Light wisps of precipitation streaming from a cloud but evaporating before reaching the ground, especially when the air below is low in humidity.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.