Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- a period of dry weather, especially a long one that is injurious to crops.
- an extended shortage: a drought of good writing.
- Archaic. thirst.
noun
- a prolonged period of scanty rainfall
- a prolonged shortage
- an archaic or dialect word for thirst Archaic and Scot form: drouth
Old English drugað, drugoð “drought, dryness, desert,” from Proto-Germanic *drugothaz, from Germanic root *dreug- “dry” (cf high/height) with *-itho, Germanic suffix for forming abstract nouns (see -th (2)). Drouth was a Middle English variant continued in Scottish and northern English dialect and in poetry.
- A long period of abnormally low rainfall, lasting up to several years.