Nile

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Nile

(nīl)

The longest river in the world, flowing about 6,675 km (4,150 mi) through eastern Africa from its most remote sources in Burundi to a delta on the Mediterranean Sea in northeast Egypt. The main headstreams, the Blue Nile and the White Nile, join at Khartoum in Sudan to form the Nile proper. The river has been used for irrigation in Egypt since at least 4000 bc, a function now regulated largely by the Aswan High Dam.

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.

Nile

(naɪl)

(Placename) a river in Africa, rising in S central Burundi in its remotest headstream, the Luvironza: flows into Lake Victoria and leaves the lake as the Victoria Nile, flowing to Lake Albert, which is drained by the Albert Nile, becoming the White Nile at Lake No, then flowing through South Sudan; joined by its chief tributary, the Blue Nile (which rises near Lake Tana, Ethiopia) at Khartoum, and flows north to its delta on the Mediterranean; the longest river in the world. Length: (from the source of the Luvironza to the Mediterranean) 6741 km (4187 miles)

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

Nile

(naɪl)

n.

a river in E Africa, the longest in the world, flowing N from Lake Victoria in Uganda to the Mediterranean. 3473 mi. (5592 km) long; from the headwaters of the Kagera River, 4000 mi. (6440 km) long.

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Noun

Nile - the world's longest river (4150 miles); flows northward through eastern Africa into the Mediterranean; the Nile River valley in Egypt was the site of the world's first great civilization

Nile River

Arab Republic of Egypt, Egypt, United Arab Republic - a republic in northeastern Africa known as the United Arab Republic until 1971; site of an ancient civilization that flourished from 2600 to 30 BC

Republic of the Sudan, Soudan, Sudan - a republic in northeastern Africa on the Red Sea; achieved independence from Egypt and the United Kingdom in 1956

Republic of Uganda, Uganda - a landlocked republic in eastern Africa; achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1962

Translations

Nil

Нил

Nile

[naɪl] N → Nilo 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

Nile

[ˈnaɪl] n
the Nile → le Nil

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Nile

n → Nil m

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

Nile

[naɪl] n the Nile → il Nilo

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

References in classic literature ?

Koner, triumphantly demonstrated the feasibility of the journey, its chances of success, the nature of the obstacles existing, the immense advantages of the aerial mode of locomotion, and found fault with nothing but the selected point of departure, which it contended should be Massowah, a small port in Abyssinia, whence James Bruce, in 1768, started upon his explorations in search of the sources of the Nile. Apart from that, it mentioned, in terms of unreserved admiration, the energetic character of Dr.

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On his reaching the river Nile he saw a Lion on its bank and being fearfully afraid, climbed up a tree.

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The ancient Kings of Egypt conveyed the waters of the Nile to this place by an artificial canal, now so choked with sand, that there are scarce any marks remaining of so noble and beneficial a work.

The Nile runs here so near the shore that it might without much difficulty be turned through this opening of the mountains into the Red Sea, a design which many of the Emperors have thought of putting in execution, and thereby making a communication between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, but have been discouraged either by the greatness of the expense or the fear of laying great part of Egypt under water, for some of that country lies lower than sea.

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"The ancients well understood the utility of a communication between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean for their commercial affairs: but they did not think of digging a canal direct, and took the Nile as an intermediate.

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they deified the crocodile of the nile, because the crocodile is tongueless; and the Sperm Whale has no tongue, or as least it is so exceedingly small, as to be incapable of protrusion.

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From Salamis to Actium, through Lepanto and the Nile to the naval massacre of Navarino, not to mention other armed encounters of lesser interest, all the blood heroically spilt into the Mediterranean has not stained with a single trail of purple the deep azure of its classic waters.

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Among these I found a treasure in Curtis's two books, the 'Nile Notes of a Howadji,' and the 'Howadji in Syria.' I already knew him by his 'Potiphar Papers,' and the ever-delightful reveries which have since gone under the name of 'Prue and I;' but those books of Eastern travel opened a new world of thinking and feeling.

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"My friends are flying up and down the Nile, and talking to the large lotus- flowers.

He told him of the red ibises, who stand in long rows on the banks of the Nile, and catch gold-fish in their beaks; of the Sphinx, who is as old as the world itself, and lives in the desert, and knows everything; of the merchants, who walk slowly by the side of their camels, and carry amber beads in their hands; of the King of the Mountains of the Moon, who is as black as ebony, and worships a large crystal; of the great green snake that sleeps in a palm-tree, and has twenty priests to feed it with honey-cakes; and of the pygmies who sail over a big lake on large flat leaves, and are always at war with the butterflies.

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In the great Zoological Gardens we found specimens of all the animals the world produces, I think, including a dromedary, a monkey ornamented with tufts of brilliant blue and carmine hair--a very gorgeous monkey he was-- a hippopotamus from the Nile, and a sort of tall, long-legged bird with a beak like a powder horn and close-fitting wings like the tails of a dress coat.

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Flash floods from the Nile killed about 62 people and injured nearly 100, said the official SUNA news agency quoting a health ministry official as saying the crisis "did not reach the level of being declared a disaster."