prairie

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prai·rie

(prâr′ē)

An extensive flat or rolling area dominated by grasses, especially the grasslands that once covered much of central North America.

[French, from Old French praierie, from Vulgar Latin *prātāria, from Latin prāta, meadow.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

prairie

(ˈprɛərɪ)

(Physical Geography) (often plural) a treeless grassy plain of the central US and S Canada. Compare pampas, steppe, savanna

[C18: from French, from Old French praierie, from Latin prātum meadow]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

prai•rie

(ˈprɛər i)

n.

1. an extensive, level or undulating, mostly treeless tract of land esp. in the Mississippi valley, orig. covered with coarse grasses.

2. a tract of grassland; meadow.

[1675–85; < French: meadow < Vulgar Latin *prātāria= Latin prāt(um) meadow + -āria, feminine of -ārius -ary]

prai·rie

(prâr′ē)

An extensive area of flat or rolling grassland, especially the large plain of central North America.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

prairie

An extensive open area of flat grassland, especially in the central plains of North America.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun

prairie - a treeless grassy plain

grassland - land where grass or grasslike vegetation grows and is the dominant form of plant life

Translations

prérie

prærie

Prärie

λιβάδι

preeria

prairie

prerija

préri

gresja

prateria

prerija

prērija

prærie

прерии прерия

ağaçsız geniş çayırlık ova

林间小空地牧场

prairie

[ˈprɛərɪ]

A. N → pradera f, llanura f, pampa f (LAm)
the Prairies (US) → las Grandes Llanuras

B. CPD prairie dog N → perro m de las praderas
prairie oyster N (US) huevo crudo y sazonado que se toma en una bebida alcohólica
prairie wolf N → coyote m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

prairie

[ˈprɛəri] n → prairie f
the prairies → la Prairieprairie dog n → chien m de prairie

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

prairie

n → Grassteppe f; (in North America) → Prärie f

prairie

prairie chicken

n (US) → Präriehuhn nt

prairie dog

n → Präriehund m

prairie oyster

n → Prärieauster f

prairie schooner

n → Planwagen m

prairie wolf

n → Präriewolf m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

prairie

[ˈprɛərɪ] n → prateria
the prairies → le grandi praterie

prairie

(ˈpreəri) noun

(often in plural) in North America, an area of flat, treeless, grass-covered land.

References in classic literature ?

Drop him in the midst of a prairie, or in the heart of the mountains, and he is never at a loss.

Departure from Fort Osage Modes of transportation Pack- horses Wagons Walker and Cerre; their characters Buoyant feelings on launching upon the prairies Wild equipments of the trappers Their gambols and antics Difference of character between the American and French trappers Agency of the Kansas General Clarke White Plume, the Kansas chief Night scene in a trader's camp Colloquy between White Plume and the captain Bee- hunters Their expeditions Their feuds with the Indians Bargaining talent of White Plume

The chief difficulty occurs in passing the deep ravines cut through the prairies by streams and winter torrents.

The wagons, also, would be more easily defended, and might form a kind of fortification in case of attack in the open prairies. A train of twenty wagons, drawn by oxen, or by four mules or horses each, and laden with merchandise, ammunition, and provisions, were disposed in two columns in the center of the party, which was equally divided into a van and a rear-guard.

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Almost every day she came running across the prairie to have her reading lesson with me.

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Some gamesome wights will tell you that they have to plant weeds there, they don't grow naturally; that they import Canada thistles; that they have to send beyond seas for a spile to stop a leak in an oil cask; that pieces of wood in Nantucket are carried about like bits of the true cross in Rome; that people there plant toadstools before their houses, to get under the shade in summer time; that one blade of grass makes an oasis, three blades in a day's walk a prairie; that they wear quicksand shoes, something like Laplander snowshoes; that they are so shut up, belted about, every way inclosed, surrounded, and made an utter island of by the ocean, that to their very chairs and tables small clams will sometimes be found adhering, as to the backs of sea turtles.

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"The Prairie" was the third in order of Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales.

Precaution, 1820; The Spy, 1821; The Pioneers, 1823; The Pilot, 1823; Lionel Lincoln, or the Leaguer of Boston, 1825; The Last of the Mohicans, 1826; The Prairie, 1827; The Red Rover, 1828; Notions of the Americans, 1828; The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish, 1829; The Water-witch,

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1802 the small-pox, that dreadful pestilence, which swept over the land like a fire over the prairie, made its appearance in the village of the Omahas.

This broad but shallow stream flows for an immense distance through a wide and verdant valley scooped out of boundless prairies. It draws its main supplies, by several forks or branches, from the Rocky Mountains.

At night, also, the lurid reflection of immense fires hung in the sky, showing the conflagration of great tracts of the prairies. Such fires not being made by hunters so late in the season, it was supposed they were caused by some wandering war parties.

The Omahas were once one of the numerous and powerful tribes of the prairies, vying in warlike might and prowess with the Sioux, the Pawnees, the Sauks, the Konsas, and the Iatans.