Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A sudden overflow of a stream resulting from a heavy rain or a thaw.
- n. A stream of fresh water that empties into a body of salt water.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A small stream of fresh water; a brook.
- n. A flood or overflowing of a river, by reason of heavy rains or melted snow; an inundation, especially one of a comparatively moderate extent: same as fresh, n., 1.
Wiktionary
- n. A flood resulting from heavy rain or a spring thaw. Whereas heavy rain often causes a flash flood, a spring thaw event is generally a more incremental process, depending upon local climate and topography. The term freshet is most commonly used to describe a spring thaw resulting from snow and ice melt in rivers located in the northern latitudes of North America, particularly Canada, where rivers are frozen each winter and thaw during the spring. A spring freshet can sometimes last several weeks on large river systems, resulting in significant inundation of flood plains as the snow pack melts in the river's watershed. Spring freshets associated with thaw events are sometimes accompanied by ice jams which can cause flash floods.
- n. a small stream, especially one flowing into the sea
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A stream of fresh water.
- n. A flood or overflowing of a stream caused by heavy rains or melted snow; a sudden inundation.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the occurrence of a water flow resulting from sudden rain or melting snow
Examples
“It was evident that, what in the language of the country is called a freshet was commencing.”
“There was nothing the matter with the director's plans on this occasion; every detail of the "freshet" had been made ready for with exactness and with prodigious regard to detail.”
Ruth Fielding in the Great Northwest Or, The Indian Girl Star of the Movies
“She had picked up a peavey one of the timbermen had left on this bank and was using is as a staff as she watched the "freshet" start.”
Ruth Fielding in the Great Northwest Or, The Indian Girl Star of the Movies
“So when some professional friends of his called him up, one day, after a feast of reason and a regular "freshet" of soul which had lasted two or three hours, he read them these verses.”
“freshet' is coming down from the up country to visit us.”
“By the 'freshet' bein 'over I judged he meant the tide bein' out.”
“The "freshet" above, an archaic term today, usually referred to a river overflow from a spring thaw accompanied by heavy rains, although, as in this case, it was sometimes used to refer to flood conditions at any time of year.”
“Much as one might want to avoid an annual freshet of legalism, it is very hard to argue that there is not.”
The Wall Street Journal: Forced Merriment: The True Spirit of Christmas
“Yet the freshet rose higher than that, and swept the bridge away.”
“There was a freshet on the river, the flood tide from the bay had been beaten back into a strong ebb, and the lusty west wind died down with the sun.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘freshet’.
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Archaic
abide, abjure, abroad, adamant, afield, aforetime, aghast, anon, apace, argent, assuage, aught and 327 more...
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Written on Water
An eclectic list of words pertaining to and describing water.
"...I am the faithful husband of the rain,
I love the water of wells and springs
and the taste of roofs in the...water, rain, cistern, thirst, dead-water, eddy-water, surge, flood, ebb, fluid, flow, liquor amnii and 180 more...
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She She She
Words containing "she" but excluding words beginning with "she"
usher, ashen, eggshell, freshen, bolshevik, woodshed, abashed, whirling dervishes, usherettes, diminishes, quashed, unsheathed and 51 more...
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T'ain't going to drain no more
wordie stoppers: without refrain: stanza on its own: lotion motion: T'ain't going to drain no moor
nanopyle, nanonize, nanocosm, ombromombo, misle(ad), nanostrobos, nanomini, peerl, serein, hyetalous, pelter, sluiciest and 43 more...
bilby
If I could see the weedy mussels
Crusting the wrecked and rotting hulls,
Hear once again the hungry crying
Overhead, of the wheeling gulls;
Feel once again the shanty straining
Under the turning of the tide,
Fear once again the rising freshet,
Dread the bell in the fog outside,
I should be happy!
- Edna St. Vincent Millay, 'Exiled'. Sep 21, 2009
yarb The river-bed was here about a mile and a half broad and entirely covered with shingle over which the river ran in many winding channels, looking, when seen from above, like a tangled skein of ribbon, and glistening in the sun. We knew that it was liable to very sudden and heavy freshets; but even had we not known it, we could have seen it by the snags of trees, which must have been carried long distances, and by the mass of vegetable and mineral debris which was banked against their lower side, showing that at times the whole river-bed must be covered with a roaring torrent many feet in depth and of ungovernable fury.
- Samuel Butler, Erewhon Jul 17, 2008