1
archaic
: stream sense 1
2
a
: a great rise or overflowing of a stream caused by heavy rains or melted snow
b
: a swelling quantity : influx
summer brings a freshet of tourists
Examples of freshet in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Two and a half feet of rain beat down upon the face of the San Gabriels, wiping out the rustic resorts wedged into the canyons, and chuting runoff waters down onto the plain along ancient dry rivulets and freshets and canyons that Angelenos had forgotten or never known about.
—
Patt Morrisoncolumnist, Los Angeles Times, 28 Feb. 2023
The Hudson River had a little current, fed by freshets from upstream with local rains, and melting snow farther up, in the Adirondacks.
—Ian Frazier, The New Yorker, 6 Apr. 2020
As August turned to September, the sun dropped and the first cold freshet of autumn rainwater flowed out of the mountains and tickled the noses of the salmon waiting off Astoria, where the Columbia meets the Pacific Ocean.
—Patrick Symmes, Harper's magazine, 28 Oct. 2019
Pools of it, rivulets of it, lapping lakes and freshets of it, in a green and timbered landscape — our eyes were always thirsty for the sight of it.
—Los Angeles Times, 17 Aug. 2019
And spring will come and melt this frozen beauty with its thunderous freshet.
—Peter Marteka, courant.com, 7 Jan. 2018
Director Matthew Ozawa gave the demon barber and all his victims credible backstories, adding flesh to the freshets of blood in Skylight Music Theatre’s production of this Sondheim classic.
—Mike Fischer, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 15 Dec. 2017
And so this river rises, gathers new freshets, drains ever more valleys.
—Bill McKibben, New Republic, 12 July 2017
New springs, freshets of water popping out of the mountain and onto the road, created small gullies almost daily, and mud tainted the blue ocean the color of a café latte in broad eddies circling up the coast.
—Thomas Curwen, latimes.com, 26 May 2017
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Patt Morrisoncolumnist, Los Angeles Times, 28 Feb. 2023
The Hudson River had a little current, fed by freshets from upstream with local rains, and melting snow farther up, in the Adirondacks.
—Ian Frazier, The New Yorker, 6 Apr. 2020
As August turned to September, the sun dropped and the first cold freshet of autumn rainwater flowed out of the mountains and tickled the noses of the salmon waiting off Astoria, where the Columbia meets the Pacific Ocean.
—Patrick Symmes, Harper's magazine, 28 Oct. 2019
Pools of it, rivulets of it, lapping lakes and freshets of it, in a green and timbered landscape — our eyes were always thirsty for the sight of it.
—Los Angeles Times, 17 Aug. 2019
And spring will come and melt this frozen beauty with its thunderous freshet.
—Peter Marteka, courant.com, 7 Jan. 2018
Director Matthew Ozawa gave the demon barber and all his victims credible backstories, adding flesh to the freshets of blood in Skylight Music Theatre’s production of this Sondheim classic.
—Mike Fischer, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 15 Dec. 2017
And so this river rises, gathers new freshets, drains ever more valleys.
—Bill McKibben, New Republic, 12 July 2017
New springs, freshets of water popping out of the mountain and onto the road, created small gullies almost daily, and mud tainted the blue ocean the color of a café latte in broad eddies circling up the coast.
—Thomas Curwen, latimes.com, 26 May 2017
Cite this Entry
“Freshet.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/freshet. Accessed 30 Jun. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
freshet
noun
fresh·et
ˈfresh-ət 
: a sudden overflowing of a stream
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