oxbow lake
- noun
- /ˈɑksboʊ leɪk/
- Specialized
:
lago de meandro
- Anderson, a farmer in the Mississippi Delta region, has a 40-acre oxbow lake stocked with bass and catfish 300 yards behind his house.
- oxbow lake watersheds
Examples
-
The land was a maze of creeks and oxbow lakes.
Fiction book (2002) -
This oxbow lake was a large one.
Fiction book (2002) -
It might be a ridge that would take us around the other side of the oxbow lake.
Fiction book (2002) -
The participants glided up tributaries and into oxbow lakes in search of that definitive shot.
Academic text (2008) -
We slowly picked our way through a tangle of blackberry bushes that were all in bloom and emerged on the shore of an oxbow lake.
Fiction book (2002) -
The travelers unexpectedly came upon oxbow lakes that were completely cut off from the delta, between banks that had begun as isles of sedimentation in the river.
Fiction book (1990) -
The canoeists paddled quietly through the serene oxbow lake, enjoying the stillness and beauty of nature.
-
The children spent the afternoon fishing by the edge of the oxbow lake, hoping to catch some sunfish.
-
As we hiked along the river, we discovered an oxbow lake that had formed after the main channel shifted.
Synonyms
793
1.0
A large area of fresh water surrounded by land
9
7.7
A lake or a sea inlet in Scotland
2
9.9
A lake or long narrow water area like an inlet
How Stagnant
1
6.5
- Specialized
3
6.9
- Specialized
1
7.9
282
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'oxbow' denotes a U-shaped river bend (often forming a cut-off water body) and 'lake' denotes an inland body of water, so together they describe a lake formed from an oxbow. This follows a common noun+noun modifier pattern (type-of-lake), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Oxbow lake gets its name from a U-shaped wooden oxbow, the 'yoke' that fits over an ox's neck. That's why oxbow lake means a U-shaped lake left when a river cuts off one of its bends.