Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A wide, flat river valley.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In Scotland, a valley of considerable size, often having a river running through it and giving it its distinctive appellation: as, Strathspey (the valley of the Spey), Strathearn (the valley of the Earn), and Strathmore (the great valley).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Scot. A valley of considerable size, through which a river runs; a valley bottom; -- often used in composition with the name of the river.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Scotland A wide, flat river valley.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Scottish Gaelic srath, from Old Irish; see ster- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Scottish Gaelic srath

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Examples

  • "strath" or "dale" -- presents insurmountable philological difficulties to its identification with Gwen; the L and G, or GW not being interchangeable.

    Archaeological Essays, Vol. 1 James Young Simpson 1840

  • We passed sandbags in Milnathort (which had featured in the television news), and in Strathardle itself (a short strath, as straths go) there was a “Police Slow” sign followed by 100 yards of streaks of mud on the road.

    Archive 2009-07-01 Jean 2009

  • Aspen is one of my favourite trees in the strath, and having the bowl with the knives to come makes it even more so now.

    Country diary: Straithnairn 2011

  • There are pine martens in the strath, but we rarely see them.

    Country Diary: Strathnairn 2011

  • Standing under the aspen trees that straddle this burn in our strath, I wondered at the varying shapes.

    Country diary: Straithnairn 2011

  • We passed sandbags in Milnathort (which had featured in the television news), and in Strathardle itself (a short strath, as straths go) there was a “Police Slow” sign followed by 100 yards of streaks of mud on the road.

    Jean's Knitting Jean 2009

  • Although there are pine martens in the strath we rarely see them, but occasionally we observe their tracks in mud or droppings in various places.

    Country Diary: Strathnairn 2011

  • Although we have lived in this strath for 24 years the garden still, fortunately, keeps coming up with surprises so far as wildlife is concerned.

    Country diary: Achvaneran, Highlands 2011

  • I mentioned this to the local wood turner and carver who lives up the strath from our cottage.

    Country diary: Straithnairn 2011

  • As we left, the strath was shrouded in a harr, a type of sea mist, but by the time we have driven east from Inverness conditions were ideal.

    Country diary: Nairn Dunes 2010

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