adobe

An unburnt brick dried in the sun.

Noun

  1. An unburnt brick dried in the sun.
    • Many people in Texas and New Mexico live in adobe houses.
    • “Find me a nice, clean adobe wall,” says he, “and send Senor Rompiro up against it.” - 1903, O’Henry, Roads of Destiny:
    • Stone sidewalks, little more than a ledge in width, ran along the base of the mean and monotonous adobe houses. - 1904 November, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], Cabbages and Kings, New York, N.Y.: McClure,...

    Synonyms: dobe mudbrick

  2. The earth from which such bricks are made.
  3. A house made of adobe brick.
    • The snow-dusted mesas and million-dollar adobes look enchanting as ever[…]. - 2007 March 11, Ralph Blumenthal, “Prosecutor’s Ouster Shifts Political Order”, in New York Times:

Origin

Etymology tree Egyptian ḏbt Demotic Egyptian tb Coptic ⲧⲱⲃⲉ (tōbe)der. Arabic طُوبَة (ṭūba) Andalusian Arabic طُوبَة Andalusian Arabic طُوبder. Spanish adobebor. English adobe From Spanish adobe, from Arabic اَلطُّوب (aṭ-ṭūb), from Sahidic Coptic ⲧⲱⲃⲉ (tōbe, “brick”), from Demotic Egyptian ⁠⁠ (tb, “brick”), from Egyptian Db-b-t:O39 (ḏbt, “brick, block, ingot”).

Forms

adobes

Derived

adobe bread adobelike adobe lily superadobe