drought

«drought» in Mova's school dictionary: A long period of time with little or no rain, so the land… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a drought, droughts; uncountable when general)

meaning for a pupil

1) A long period of time with little or no rain, so the land becomes very dry and water is scarce. tree →

2) A long time without something that is needed or wanted: «a goal drought». tree →

sense in the lessons

In geography and science lessons droughts cause crops to fail, rivers to dry up and animals to suffer; they are linked to bushfires in Australia. In everyday life, a drought can bring «hosepipe bans» (UK) and water restrictions. In sport talk, a «goal drought» means a team has not scored for a long time. Phrases: «severe drought», «in drought», «drought-resistant plants», «water restrictions».

examples

• The drought dried up the farm dam. tree →
• Many crops died during the drought. tree →
• Cacti are drought-resistant plants. tree →
• There's a hosepipe ban because of the drought. tree →
• (Australia) Farmers struggled through a long drought. tree →
• The striker ended his goal drought with a brilliant header. tree →
• When a drought was impending, he scattered the peasant's seed-corn over a swamp; when a wet season was at hand, he sowed the slopes of the hills. tree →

note

Pronounced «drowt» (rhymes with «out»), not «drot». The «gh» is silent. Do not confuse with «draught» (UK: a cold current of air) or «drought» with «flood» (its opposite). In maths, drought problems often use rainfall data: compare monthly totals to the usual average.

In the corpora

• Elephants have excellent memories: old female leaders remember distant water in droughts and recognise friends after many years.
• Peter and Rosemary Grant watched the finches' beaks change within just a few years after a drought.
• In a drought in Tanzania, herds with older matriarchs who remembered an earlier drought survived better.
• In the 1970s Peter and Rosemary Grant measured finch beaks changing in just a few years after a drought.
• Many southern cities were abandoned around 1,100 years ago, probably because of droughts, wars and too many people for the land.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «drought» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.