donga

Definition

A usually dry, eroded watercourse running only in times of heavy rain.

Etymology

From Afrikaans donga, from Zulu udonga.

Example Sentences

• "Major Pack-Beresford and other officers were shot down, and every unhorsed man remained necessarily as a prisoner under the very muzzles of the riflemen in the donga."
• "There were trenches for us men, but no place of safety for our horses nearer than this long and narrow donga which ran from within our lines towards those of the Boers."
• "Thousands of miserable cattle and goats roamed everywhere making tracks that would someday form cracks which successive rains would open into gullies and dongas."