dust storm
18
2.2
- noun
- /dʌst stɔrm/
:
tormenta de polvo
- Another coccidioidomycosis outbreak occurred after a severe dust storm in the southern San Joaquin Valley of California in December 1977.
It arrived in the midst of a great planet girdling dust storm.
- It arrived in the midst of a great planet girdling dust storm.
- There was a little bit of drama because Mars started the one of the biggest dust storm it ever experienced.
- He frequently gave speeches in support of the New Deal at the site of floods, cyclones, dust storms, hurricanes.
- And, and one of and one of those, I was laying in bed on some of the mornings and I didn't want to go out into the hot sun and dust storms yet of burning men.
Examples
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Not unless you do something stupid, like get caught in a dust storm three thousand kicks from home.
Fiction book (1999) -
I mean, it was really hot and we had dust storms like in Afghanistan or something.
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We're flying into a dust storm -- and it's a big one!
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Now that it was March, there were dust storms every afternoon at the camp.
Fiction book (1990) -
Horrible dust storms and we had to wear masks a good lot of the time.
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They have dust storms for months there.
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Extreme drought and massive dust storms have shut down the Earth's entire agricultural system.
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For more than three decades, Donald Fryrear has tracked dust storms for USDA's Agricultural Research Service.
Academic text (1994) -
Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere sometimes produces dust storms with gusts of 25 meters per second (50 mph).
Academic text (1994) -
For the fourth time this summer, a huge dust storm has blown through Phoenix.
Synonyms
21
3.4
Strong wind that blows sand and dust into the air
10
7.4
A strong wind that lifts and carries dust or sand
1
9.9
A strong wind that carries dust and quickly makes it hard to see
How Severe
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a storm involving strong winds that lift dust' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'dust' (tiny particles) with 'storm' (severe windy weather). This noun+noun composition follows a common, cross-linguistic compounding pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Dust storm comes from a simple picture: strong winds lift loose dust and sand into the air until it forms a moving, cloud-like storm. That's why the phrase means 'a storm with dust that reduces visibility' and makes travel and breathing hard.