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drought

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drought

  [drout]
Use drought in a Sentence
–noun
1. a period of dry weather, esp. a long one that is injurious to crops.
2. an extended shortage: a drought of good writing.
3. Archaic. thirst.
Also, drouth  [drouth] .

Origin:
bef. 1000; ME; OE drūgath, equiv. to drūg- (base of drȳge dry ) + -ath -th 1 ; c. D droogte dryness

Synonyms:
2. scarcity, lack, want, dearth, paucity, famine.

Pronunciation note:
Drought and drouth, nouns derived from the adjective dry plus a suffix, are spellings that represent two phonetic developments of the same Old English word, and are pronounced [drout] and [drouth] respectively. The latter pronunciation, therefore, is not a mispronunciation of drought. The now unproductive suffix -th 1 and its alternate form -t were formerly used to derive nouns from adjectives or verbs, resulting in such pairs as drouth—drought from dry and highth—height (the former now obsolete) from high.
In American English, drought with the pronunciation [drout] is common everywhere in educated speech, and is the usual printed form.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To drought
drought   (drout)   
n.  

  1. A long period of abnormally low rainfall, especially one that adversely affects growing or living conditions.

  2. A prolonged dearth or shortage.


[Middle English, from Old English drūgoth; akin to drȳge, dry.]
drought'y adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Science Dictionary
drought   (drout)  Pronunciation Key 
A long period of abnormally low rainfall, lasting up to several years.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Bible Dictionary

Drought

From the middle of May to about the middle of August the land of Palestine is dry. It is then the "drought of summer" (Gen. 31:40; Ps. 32:4), and the land suffers (Deut. 28:23: Ps. 102:4), vegetation being preserved only by the dews (Hag. 1:11). (See DEW.)

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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