river bottom

plural river bottoms · alternative riverbottom

1. The lowest part of a river, where the water meets the ground below.

   Synonyms: riverbed

2. The alluvial land along the margin of a river.

   1 more example

   [Old Humpback:] "Every other day, after we have eaten up our rations, we march through a big door and the man gives us a brass check to exchange at the window for more. Every man, woman and child is given two pounds of meat and two more of flour or corn; and when we would not eat their bacon they sent down to Texas and brought up big herds of steers. We spend our time in singing and dancing and in hunting on the plains, for the white men gave us back all our guns; and in the riverbottom below we have big fields of corn, and squashes, and watermelons, and beans."

   1926, Dane Coolidge, “Chapter 26: The Peace Council”, in Under the Sun [a novel], E.P. Dutton, page 252

   Synonyms: bottomland, bottom, alluvial plain, floodplain