nullah

plural nullahs · alternative nala · alternative nalla · alternative nallah · alternative nulla

1. South AsiaA stream-bed, ravine, or other watercourse; a drain for rain or floodwater.First known use 17th c.

   It was just after the exit from a bridge; the animal had probably come up out of the nullah.

   1924 June 4, E[dward] M[organ] Forster, A Passage to India, London: Edward Arnold & Co., →OCLC

   2 more examples

   About this time a large gole of horsemen came on towards me, and I proposed to charge; but as they turned at once from the fire of the guns, and as there was a nullah in front, I refrained from advancing after them.

   1849, Brigadier Lockwood, Report of 2nd Cavalry Division at Battle of Goojerat

   Until a few years ago, much of the city’s sewage was released untreated into the Ganges via public drains, or nullahs, which discharged along the same bank as the ghats, where people habitually bathe.

   2023 November 30, Oliver Franklin-Wallis, “Inside India’s Gargantuan Mission to Clean the Ganges River”, in Wired, →ISSN

2. Hong KongAn open-air, concrete-lined channel for draining rain or wastewater; a storm drain.

   On all sides, wild mountains rise precipitously above wooded nullahs, and we have a clear view, to the right, of the famous Amah Rock, with its singular resemblance to a Chinese woman carrying her baby on her back in the traditional fashion.

   1954 October, 'Boscawen', “The Kowloon-Canton Railway of Today”, in Railway Magazine, page 712