Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A dark sandy clay found in the neighborhood of many bogs in Ireland. It is used for floors, and, mixed with lime, for plastering walls.
- noun In the East Indies, a tract of country between two rivers. Also written
duab .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- India A tongue or tract of land included between two rivers.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun India A
tongue ortract ofland included between tworivers .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word doab.
Examples
-
He wheeled his horse and was off at the gallop, making north, with my screw behind, leaving me alone on the doab.
Flashman And The Mountain Of Light Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1990
-
I took a turn along the tent-lines as I waited, admiring the moon shadows drifting across the empty doab, and looking along the grey, straight ribbon of the Lahore road which, God willing, I'd never take again.
Flashman And The Mountain Of Light Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1990
-
I replied by telling her about the chap who lost a rifle in France and tripped over it in West Africa twenty years later,46 and added for good measure an account of my own strange experience after I parted from Harlan in the doab.
Flashman And The Mountain Of Light Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1990
-
How far we came before the teeming down-pourceased and the sky began to lighten, I can't tell, but presently we could see the doab about us, with wraiths of vapour hanging heavy over the scrub.
Flashman And The Mountain Of Light Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1990
-
Once beyond the Rushnai, keep to the doab, due south-east, and dawn should see you at Jupindar - it's about forty miles, and not on the map, but you'll see it clear enough.
Flashman And The Mountain Of Light Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1990
-
At about mid-night we pulled up to water the horses at a little stream, and stamp some warmth back into our limbs; there was a faint starshine over the doab now, and I was remarking to Jassa that we'd be able to raise the pace, when Ahmed Shah called to us.
Flashman And The Mountain Of Light Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1990
-
We kept clear of the road, which was choked with transport trains, but even on the doab we found ourselves riding through regiment after regiment marching in open order across the great sunbaked plain.
Flashman And The Mountain Of Light Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1990
-
Ahead of us the doab* (* The name given to the tracts between the rivers of the Punjab.) would be alive with the main body as far as the Sutlej, beyond which Lal Singh was already investing Ferozepore and Tej Singh's infantry would be advancing ... whither?
Flashman And The Mountain Of Light Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1990
-
We'd just come through a jungly strip, and behind it the doab lay flat as a flagstone to the horizon.
Flashman And The Mountain Of Light Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1990
-
A precious minute was lost while he got himself to rights, bleating that he wasn't done yet, and Jassa fairly threw him into the saddle; then we were away, drumming across the doab for those distant rocks where, unless Gardner had lied, friends were waiting.
Flashman And The Mountain Of Light Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1990
qms commented on the word doab
Doab is a Word of the Day selection to sow confusion in the minds of weary rhymers:
1. I think I have identified five accepted pronunciation of the word: dew ab/ub, dough ab/ub, or as one syllable to rhyme with globe.
2. Every usage example on the Wordnik page is from Flashman and the Mountain of Light. I love the Flashman novels but would prefer more illuminating illustration than G.M. Fraser's infatuation with the word.
3. From Wikipedia:
"Doab is a term used in India and Pakistan for the "tongue," or tract of land lying between two converging, or confluent, rivers."
The notion of a tract of land defined by rivers that converge (that is, that are not parallel) seems to me crucial, but it is missing from the Wordnik definitions. It is the reverse of a delta.
4. The Century is the only dictionary to mention the Irish clay definition. I suspect a confusion with daub.
The feeble old swagman has dreams:
Through haze in his memory it seems
He sits by a boab
In some Western doab
And watches the commingling streams.
September 1, 2015
slumry commented on the word doab
Mesopotamia is etymologically, as well as physically, a land between rivers.
September 1, 2015