dust cloud
11
2.9
- noun
:
nube de polvo
- As the car sped down the dirt road, a large dust cloud rose behind it, obscuring the view.
- a huge dust cloud
- a billowing dust cloud
- raises a dust cloud
There's a giant, opaque, thick dust cloud around this star, and it's very uneven.
- There's a giant, opaque, thick dust cloud around this star, and it's very uneven.
- All right, our second-half, mix it on low so that don't get a big dust cloud like this.
Examples
-
On the dirt road, whirling dust clouds trail the cars.
Fiction book (1993) -
There's a dust cloud headed this way if it hits us.
-
I was driving by and I saw the dust cloud.
-
And that dust cloud beyond?
-
Looking over, she saw his dust cloud had spread until it covered three houses.
Fiction book (1999) -
Miles to the south, there was a dust cloud on the road.
Fiction book (2002) -
What if the sun were located inside a dust cloud?
Academic text (2004) -
It's tough to see what goes on in those dust clouds.
-
The morning wind was already raising dust clouds when they left the ship.
Fiction book (1991) -
Look at those dust clouds kicked up by a plow in West Texas!
Academic text (2004)
Synonyms
102
1.0
A large group of small things moving together in the air
41
3.4
A thin cloud of dust, smoke, or moisture that makes it hard to see
A cloud of dust and broken pieces that fills the air after a collapse or explosion
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from the constituents: 'dust' (tiny particles) + 'cloud' (a visible mass) yields a visible mass of dust suspended in the air. This is a straightforward noun–noun compound using common concrete words and a cross-linguistically familiar composition pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both words will understand it.
Etymology
The noun dust cloud names a real cloud made of tiny bits of dirt in the air, where dust means small grains and cloud means a thick, visible mass. Imagine a truck kicking up dirt that hangs like a cloud and hides the road, so dust cloud means 'a mass of dust in the air that makes things hard to see'.