billabong

American  

[bil-uh-bawng, -bong] / ˈbɪl əˌbɔŋ, -ˌbɒŋ /

noun

Australian.

1. a branch of a river flowing away from the main stream but leading to no other body of water; a blind or dead-end channel.

2. a creek bed holding water only in the rainy season; a dried-up watercourse.

3. a stagnant backwater or slough formed by receding floodwater.

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billabong British  

/ ˈbɪləˌbɒŋ /

noun

1. a backwater channel that forms a lagoon or pool

2. a branch of a river running to a dead end

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Etymology

Origin of billabong

1830–40; < Wiradjuri bilabaŋ creek that runs only during the rainy season, equivalent to bila river + baŋ possessive suffix

Example Sentences

The second, which came out in 2016, held 16,000, including words borrowed from more than 100 Indigenous Australian languages — billabong, kangaroo and yabby, to name a few.

From New York Times • Jun. 19, 2022

Sonia Namarnyilk layered three stencils to print complex patterns of mermaid-like water spirits, their fluid, bright orange undulations interspersed with playful turtles and rippling billabong plants.

From Los Angeles Times • May 11, 2022

So they turned to the bdelloid Adineta ricciae, which was discovered in a small Australian billabong, or lake.

From Science Magazine • Nov. 15, 2012

The billabong is black from the tea trees that line the bank and when she flicks her legs to the surface she's a pale fish.

From The Guardian • Sep. 6, 2010

On returning after dark we passed a billabong, from which a very strong stench, as if from decomposed vegetable matter, arose.

From Reminiscences of Queensland 1862-1869 by Corfield, W. H. (William Henry)