/ English Dictionary |
NILE
Pronunciation (US): | (GB): |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The world's longest river (4150 miles); flows northward through eastern Africa into the Mediterranean; the Nile River valley in Egypt was the site of the world's first great civilization
Synonyms:
Nile; Nile River
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)
Instance hypernyms:
river (a large natural stream of water (larger than a creek))
Holonyms ("Nile" is a part of...):
Arab Republic of Egypt; Egypt; United Arab Republic (a republic in northeastern Africa known as the United Arab Republic until 1971; site of an ancient civilization that flourished from 2600 to 30 BC)
Republic of the Sudan; Soudan; Sudan (a republic in northeastern Africa on the Red Sea; achieved independence from Egypt and the United Kingdom in 1956)
Republic of Uganda; Uganda (a landlocked republic in eastern Africa; achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1962)
Derivation:
Nilotic (of or relating to the Nile River or the people living near it)
Context examples:
No one knew me, for I disguised my voice, and no one dreamed of the silent, haughty Miss March (for they think I am very stiff and cool, most of them, and so I am to whippersnappers) could dance and dress, and burst out into a 'nice derangement of epitaphs, like an allegory on the banks of the Nile'.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
“I have scarce caught a glimpse of you since you came aboard the Excellent after St. Vincent. You had the luck to be at the Nile also, I understand?”
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Global climate change could cause Africa's Lake Victoria, the world's largest tropical lake and source of the Nile River, to dry up in the next 500 years, according to new findings by a team led by University of Houston researchers.
(Environmental change in Africa: Will it lead to a drying Lake Victoria?, National Science Foundation)
My father whispered in my ear that his neighbour was Captain Foley, of the Goliath, who led the van at the Nile, and that the tall, thin, foxy-haired man opposite was Lord Cochrane, the most dashing frigate captain in the Service.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Yet I fear that we do not get much credit for it here in England, Stone, where they light the windows for a great battle, but they do not understand that it is easier for us to fight the Nile six times over, than to keep our station all winter in the blockade.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Then there was Monsieur Rudin, the French Royalist refugee who lived over on the Pangdean road, and who, when the news of a victory came in, was convulsed with joy because we had beaten Buonaparte, and shaken with rage because we had beaten the French, so that after the Nile he wept for a whole day out of delight and then for another one out of fury, alternately clapping his hands and stamping his feet.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
With the same good fighting man he served at the Nile, where the men of his command sponged and rammed and trained until, when the last tricolour had come down, they hove up the sheet anchor and fell dead asleep upon the top of each other under the capstan bars.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Straightway my uncle began to question him about the sea service, and for the whole meal my father was telling him of the Nile and of the Toulon blockade, and the siege of Genoa, and all that he had seen and done.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)