Noun

(en noun)

(Australia) An uncontrolled fire in a wooded or grassy area; a wildfire.

* 1985 , , Parliamentary Debates, House of Representatives, Weekly Hansard , Issues 4-6, page 1322,

Many homes, a great deal of property and a number of lives were lost as a result of the bushfires in this country.

* 2011 , Tracey Dickson, Tonia Gray, Risk Management in the Outdoors: A Whole-of-Organisation Approach for Education, Sport and Recreation , page 199,

It should also be kept in mind that often bushfires start and move quickly and the information relating to their location and activity may take some time to assemble and make available.

* 2011 , Larry Writer, The Australian Book of Disasters , unnumbered page,

The Black Saturday bushfires' were a series of apocalyptic blazes that burned on – and for some weeks after – Saturday, 7 February 2009. As a result of the '''bushfires''', 173 people died. It was the nation?s largest loss of life from a ' bushfire event, and 414 people were injured.

Noun

(en noun)

A period of below average rainfall, longer and more severe than a dry spell.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01

, author=Donald Worster , title=A Drier and Hotter Future , volume=100, issue=1, page=70 , magazine= citation , passage=Phoenix and Lubbock are both caught in severe drought , and it is going to get much worse. We may see many such [dust] storms in the decades ahead, along with species extinctions, radical disturbance of ecosystems, and intensified social conflict over land and water. Welcome to the Anthropocene, the epoch when humans have become a major geological and climatic force.}}

(by extension, informal) A longer than expected term without success, particularly in sport.