Dearth Meaning
/dɜːθ/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA period or condition when food is rare and hence expensive; famine.
nounScarcity; a lack or short supply.
Sentence Examples
For a writer there is no dearth of detractors.
Shortly thereafter, the dearth returned to the house.
CEFR Practice Quiz
There is a ____ of clean water in the drought-stricken region.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
For a writer there is no ____ of detractors.
Word Origin & History
First attested at least as early as the late 1300s, and appearing in Tyndale’s Pentateuch (1530) as well as the Coverdale Bible (1535). From Middle English derth, derthe, derþe, probably from Old English *dīerþ, *dīerþu, from Proto-West Germanic *diuriþu, from Proto-Germanic *diuriþō (“costliness, preciousness, honour”); corresponding to dear + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Old Saxon diuriða (“glory, honour; preciousness”), West Frisian djoerte (“love, dearness, value, worth”), Dutch duurte (“dearness; scarcity, dearth”), Icelandic dýrð (“honour, glory”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"I promise you, the effects he writes of succeed unhappily: as of unnaturalness between the child and the parent; death, dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities; divisions in state, menaces and maledictions against king and nobles; needless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what."
— c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
"And faine would hee, if he could tell how, haue plentie in his own fields, and scarcity in other mens; superfluitie at home, and dearth abroade, that hee might sell his corne at the dearer rate"
— 1634, John Downame, The christian warfare, page 559:
"Next a marsh, it would seem, and now mere earth / Desperate and done with; (so a fool finds mirth, / Makes a thing and then mars it, till his mood / Changes and off he goes!) within a rood— / Bog, clay and rubble, sand and stark black dearth."
— 1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section XXV:
"A dearth of signalmen and the high cost of labour is hastening an elimination process that already was well under way before the second world war."
— 1956 May, C. H. Betts, “St. Pancras Tunnel Signalbox”, in Railway Magazine, page 320:
"Similarly, at Cambridge, I observe what I had seen elsewhere - the dearth of tourists. The station would normally be awash with overseas visitors and students. Now it is quiet."
— 2020 November 18, Paul Bigland, “New infrastructure and new rolling stock”, in RAIL, page 50:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
There is a ____ of clean water in the drought-stricken region.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
For a writer there is no ____ of detractors.