drought

 Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 5++朗文当代英语 5++LDOCE 5++朗文 5++

Related topics: Nature

drought /draʊt/ ●●○ noun [countable, uncountable]  DNa long period of dry weather when there is not enough water for plants and animals to live 旱灾，干旱

Examples from the Corpus

drought• Another issue highlighted in the report was the alleged importation of toxic maize as part of a drought relief effort.• In his benevolent aspect he is the source of rain and hence petitioned to alleviate drought, and also to prevent meningitis.• As El Ni o ebbs away, drought follows the torrential rain.• The black color comes from the periodic fires that burned naturally in the Everglades during droughts.• A severe drought has caused most of the corn crop to fail.• But most everything evens out during the summer drought.• Studies link the drought to a sunspot cycle not due to end until the millennium.• Fires continued to burn elsewhere in the West in states plagued by one of the worst droughts of the century.• Central Africa is suffering one of the worst droughts of the century.Origin drought Old English drugath; related to dry

drought nounChinese  

there of long when period dry weather a Corpus

drought
drought /draʊt/ noun [uncountable and countable]a long period of dry weather when there is not enough water for plants and animals to live
     

THESAURUS

■ natural disasters
   ▪ earthquake a sudden shaking of the earth’s surface that often causes a lot of damage: A powerful earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. | It was the biggest earthquake to hit the Pacific Northwest for 52 years.
   ▪ flood a very large amount of water that covers an area that is usually dry: Bangladesh has been hit by a series of devastating floods (=very bad floods). | The crisis began with floods that covered one third of the countryside.
   ▪ drought a long period of dry weather when there is not enough water for plants and animals to live: The country experienced its worst drought this century. | In East Africa, three years of drought have left 10 million people in urgent need of food and water.
   ▪ famine a situation in which a large number of people have little or no food for a long time and many people die: Poor harvests led to famine. | 4,000,000 people are threatened by famine in northern Ethiopia.
   ▪ hurricane a storm that has very strong fast winds and that moves over water – used about storms in the North Atlantic Ocean: extreme weather such as hurricanes | Hurricane Andrew left southern Florida in ruins.
   ▪ typhoon a violent tropical storm – used about storms in the Western Pacific Ocean: A typhoon has hit the Philippines, lifting roofs off houses and uprooting trees.
   ▪ tsunami a very large wave, caused by extreme conditions such as an earthquake, which can cause a lot of damage when it reaches land: Thousands of people were killed in the tsunami. | Many Pacific earthquakes have generated tsunamis.

droughtBrE /draʊt/ 🔊NAmE /draʊt/ 🔊 noun [uncountable, countable] a long period of time when there is little or no rain 久旱；旱灾◆two years of severe drought两年的严重旱灾◆one of the worst droughts on record有记载以来最严重的旱灾之一

downpour, drought, flash flood, monsoon, precipitation, puddle, rain, shelter, shower, squall