# drought

Pronunciation: say "DROWT" /dɹaʊt/

## Noun

1. A long stretch of time with much less rain than usual, lasting longer and doing more harm than a simple dry spell.
   - Simple: A long time when very little rain falls and the land becomes dry.
   - _Reservoir levels fell sharply as the drought stretched into its third month._
   - _Severe droughts can force entire communities to ration water._
2. A longer than expected stretch without success, especially a team's or player's run of losses or poor results in sport. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A long stretch of time when a team or person keeps failing to win or succeed.
   - _The striker's goal drought stretched to eleven games before he finally scored._
   - _Investors endured a drought of profitable quarters before the market finally turned._

## Noun

3. The condition of dryness, aridity, or parching dry heat treated as a quality in itself. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: Dryness or dry heat, with little or no moisture in the air or ground.
   - _The traveler's throat was parched by the drought of the desert air._
   - _Nothing green survived the drought of that scorching, sun-beaten land._

## Origin

It comes from Middle English droghte, from Old English drūgaþ, and is related to Dutch droogte and Low German Dröögde. It can be understood as "dry" plus a suffix that forms abstract nouns.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/drought (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).