DROUGHT

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A shortage of rainfall

Example:

farmers most affected by the drought hope that there may yet be sufficient rain early in the growing season

Synonyms:

drought; drouth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("drought" is a kind of...):

dryness; waterlessness; xerotes (the condition of not containing or being covered by a liquid (especially water))

Sense 2

Meaning:

A prolonged shortage

Example:

when England defeated Pakistan it ended a ten-year drought

Synonyms:

drought; drouth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Hypernyms ("drought" is a kind of...):

period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)

Credits

Context examples:

The bushfires, which are among the worst in the country’s history, have been fuelled by record temperatures — 41.9 °C on 17 December — and several months of intense droughts.

(Australian bushfire smoke drifts to South America, SciDev.Net)

The research showed that peppers grafted onto Capsicum anuum, a wild pepper plant, were much better at dealing with drought conditions and high levels of salt in the soil.

(Grafting helps pepper plants deal with drought, SciDev.Net)

Stalagmites in a remote cave in northeast India hold climate secrets that can help predict rainfall patterns, floods and droughts in the sub-continent.

(Cave stalagmites reveal India’s rainfall secrets, SciDev.Net)

At the same time, remote sensing scientists have a space-based way to track when vegetation greens up and how productive it is compared to drought or wet years. the health of vegetation.

(Tracking Deer by NASA Satellite, NASA)

Improved pest resistance and drought tolerance are among potential benefits of an international effort in which Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and their collaborators have produced the clearest picture yet of the complex genomic history of the cultivated peanut.

(Peanut Genome Sequenced with Unprecedent Accuracy, U.S. Department of Agriculture)

You will see that even more money will be rolling in, and you will think back to times when you seem to have gone through a drought and never knew when the rains would come.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Understory trees such as striped maples grow beneath the forest canopy and may become unhealthy for many reasons: insects chew on them, deer use them for antler rubs, large trees fall on them during storms, and drought can affect them.

(Striped maple trees often change mating types, with females more likely to die, National Science Foundation)

Other recent developments in crop biotechnology listed in the report include GM sugarcane that is resistant to insects and drought, GM apples that do not turn brown, GM canola and safflower that have high levels of oleic acid which has anti-cancer properties.

(GM tech expands with more crops to more countries, SciDev.Net)

One idea for improving the models is to base forest responses to climate change on how trees die in response to heat, drought and other stresses.

(What's killing trees during droughts?, National Science Foundation)

Significantly more water was lost from cracks and soil within fractured mountain rock during drought and gained during heavy precipitation than hydrology models show.