nullah

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Bengali নালা (nala), Hindi नाला (nālā), from Sanskrit नाडी (nāḍī).

Noun

nullah (plural nullahs)

  1. (chiefly South Asia) A stream-bed, ravine, or other watercourse; a drain for rain or floodwater. [from 17th c.]
    • 1849, Brigadier Lockwood, Report of 2nd Cavalry Division at Battle of Goojerat
      About this time a large gole of horsemen came on towards me, and I proposed to charge; but as they turned at once from the fire of the guns, and as there was a nullah in front, I refrained from advancing after them.
    • 1924, EM Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin 2005, p. 82:
      It was just after the exit from a bridge; the animal had probably come up out of the nullah.
  2. (Hong Kong) An open-air, concrete-lined channel for draining rain or wastewater.

Further reading

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