Category:Drought

Drought, n. Etym: [OE. droght, drougth, dru, AS. druga, from drugian to dry. See Dry, and cf. Drouth, which shows the original final sound.]

1. Dryness; want of rain or of water; especially, such dryness of the weather as affects the earth, and prevents the growth of plants; aridity. The drought of March hath pierced to the root. Chaucer. In a drought the thirsty creatures cry. Dryden.

2. Thirst; want of drink. Johnson.

3. Scarcity; lack. A drought of Christian writers caused a dearth of all history. Fuller.

---excerpt from the Illustrated 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" (Genesis 31:40; Psalms 32:4), and the land suffers (Deuteronomy 28:23; Psalms 102:4), vegetation being preserved only by the dews (Haggai 1:11). (See DEW.)