irrigation

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the artificial supply of water to land so that crops and other plants can grow

   A network of canals provides irrigation for farms in the dry valley.

2. 2
   noun

   medicine: the washing of a wound, organ, or body cavity with water or a therapeutic solution

   The nurse used saline irrigation to clean the wound.

Borrowed through French irrigation from Latin irrigatio, from irrigare, 'to bring water to or water,' formed from in- + rigare, 'to water.' The agricultural sense is primary; medicine later applied the same idea of directed washing to wounds and body cavities.

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