acid rain
precipitation, as rain, snow, or sleet, containing relatively high concentrations of acid-forming chemicals, as the pollutants from coal smoke, chemical manufacturing, and smelting, that have been released into the atmosphere and combined with water vapor: harmful to the environment.
Origin of acid rain
1Words Nearby acid rain
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use acid rain in a sentence
Through the 1970s and 1980s, many of Vermont’s trees began to sicken and die en masse, a phenomenon linked to acid rain from cars and smokestacks, before 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act helped reverse the decline.
This Vermont Utility Is Revolutionizing Its Power Grid to Fight Climate Change. Will the Rest of the Country Follow Suit? | Alejandro de la Garza/Panton, Vt. | July 26, 2021 | TimeThe acid rain crisis was addressed through market forces—but those forces were brought to bear by Big Government and the Environmental Protection Agency through the organization and enforcement of emissions markets and penalties.
The lesson from the botched COVID vaccine rollout: Sometimes you need ‘Big Government’ | Matthew Heimer | January 13, 2021 | FortuneState-by-state laws on the pollutants causing acid rain would not have worked nearly as well, particularly since the causes of acid rain were Midwest power plants while victims were mainly East Coast states.
The lesson from the botched COVID vaccine rollout: Sometimes you need ‘Big Government’ | Matthew Heimer | January 13, 2021 | FortuneAnd we'll take additional action to restore our lakes and develop new technology to reduce pollution that causes acid rain.
British Dictionary definitions for acid rain
rain that contains a high concentration of pollutants, chiefly sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, released into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels such as coal or oil
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for acid rain
A type of precipitation made up of dilute acids, primarily a by-product of heavy industry.
Notes for acid rain
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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