Dust Bowl

[ duhst bohl ]

noun

1. a period, throughout the 1930s, when waves of severe drought and dust storms in the North American prairies occurred, having devastating consequences for the residents, livestock, and agriculture there:

   When the Dust Bowl began, the Great Depression was already underway—it was one disaster on top of another.

2. the region that suffered from these waves of drought and dust storms, including the entire U.S. Midwest and, in Canada, the southern prairies of Alberta and Saskatchewan:

   Our Oklahoma panhandle was smack dab in the center of that heartless Dust Bowl.

3. (lowercase) any similar dry region elsewhere:

   Where we see the tragic formation of dust bowls in Asia and Africa, overgrazing is believed to be the main culprit.

dust bowl

¹

noun

1. a semiarid area in which the surface soil is exposed to wind erosion and dust storms occur

Dust Bowl

²

noun

1. the Dust Bowl
   the area of the south central US that became denuded of topsoil by wind erosion during the droughts of the mid-1930s

Dust Bowl

1. A parched region of the Great Plains , including parts of Oklahoma , Arkansas , and Texas , where a combination of drought and soil erosion created enormous dust storms in the 1930s. The novel The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck , describes the plight of the “Okies” and “Arkies” uprooted by the drought and forced to migrate to California .

Word History and Origins

Origin of Dust Bowl¹

An Americanism dating back to 1935–40

Example Sentences

It mostly sprang up during the Great Depression because of Dust Bowl refugees heading west.

From Vox

Finally, in a virtually extinct Dust Bowl drawl, he started talking.

From Vox

Judith Baca’s vivid murals grace a freeway underpass and a flood control channel, where they convey vital California stories like those of Dust Bowl migrants, the Zoot Suit Riots, and the first Olympic women’s marathon.

From Time

From the American Dust Bowl, thousands of destitute farm families stream westward.

From The Daily Beast

My parents were born in the midst of the Dust Bowl, so I heard those stories my whole life.

From The Daily Beast

As a “giant heat wave” moved east across the nation, heat records that dated back to the Dust Bowl fell with uncanny speed.

From The Daily Beast

I grew up on the prairies of South Dakota during the years of the Dust Bowl and this book tells our story.

From The Daily Beast

During the dust bowl period, millions of people were forced to abandon their farms and livelihoods.

From Project Gutenberg

The people from the Dust Bowl, as the district is called, had to migrate, or starve.

From Project Gutenberg

Dramatic picturization of the forces of nature operating in what droughts of the 1930's caused to be called "the Dust Bowl."

From Project Gutenberg