Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use runoff in a sentence

30 example sentences · noun

Runoff means that portion of precipitation or irrigation on an area which does not infiltrate or evaporate, but instead is discharged from the area. Example: “The runoff of nitrates is poisoning the lake.”

Examples of runoff by meaning

nounThat portion of precipitation or irrigation on an area which does not infiltrate or evaporate, but instead is...

  • Ultimately, increased runoff due to fall or winter rains will raise the stream level to the point where it breaks through.1994, Ruth Patrick, Rivers of the United States, Estuaries, page 138

nounDissolved chemicals, etc, included in such water.

  • The runoff of nitrates is poisoning the lake.
  • Toxic runoff from rare earth mines in Myanmar is contaminating rivers that flow into Thailand, threatening the Mekong River and its basin's fisheries and farmland.2026 April 29, The Associated Press, “Rare earth mining is poisoning Mekong River tributaries, threatening ‘the world’s kitchen’”, in The...

nounA second or further round of an indecisive election, after other candidates (often all but the last two) have been...

  • There will now be a runoff as neither front runner received more than 50% of the vote.
  • It is one of the left's best ever results and will raise momentum for next month's final runoff where only the two candidates will compete against each other.2012 April 23, Angelique Chrisafis, “François Hollande on top but far right scores record result in French election”, in The Guardian
  • Le Pen, who finished second, is his opponent in the runoff election on Sunday.2022 April 21, Michael Crowley, “U.S. Braces for Potential French Election Shockwave”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

More sentences with runoff

  • When there is very heavy rainfall on California hillsides over a prolonged period, there is almost always ensuing surface runoff.From the entry surface runoff
  • The sewer reclogged due to debris in the runoff.From the entry reclog
  • John Cornyn or Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who will head to a May 26 runoff.2026 March 4, Arlette Saenz, “James Talarico defeats Jasmine Crockett to win Democratic primary in Texas Senate race”, in CNN, archived…. From the entry Paxton
  • Durham County uses both approaches, preserving rural open space as well as cleaning parking lot runoff.2011 February 28, Will Wilson, Constructed Climates: A Primer on Urban Environments, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 27. From the entry constructed
  • Surface runoff from ridgeline development can contaminate rivers and streams that supply drinking water downstream.2003, John R. Nolon, Open Ground: Effective Local Strategies for Protecting Natural Resources, Environmental Law Institute, →ISBN, page 29. From the entry ridgeline
  • Too much pesticide was applied and then washed from the fields by rains and surface runoff.2001, David McConnell, The Good Earth: Companion Guide, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, →ISBN, page 1.12. From the entry pesticide
  • It becomes surface water runoff through atmospheric scouring associated with rainfall and fogfall.1998, Keith B. Hoddinott, Superfund Risk Assessment in Soil Contamination Studies: Third Volume, →ISBN. From the entry fogfall
  • The increased volume of runoff results in an increase in the frequency of bankfull or near-bankfull flow conditions in stream channels.2012, Thomas H. Cahill, Low Impact Development and Sustainable Stormwater Management, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 106. From the entry bankfull
  • Pusey was an agrotech nerd and one of the first to use the new drainpipes to channel runoff water.2007, James Burke, American connections: the founding fathers, networked. From the entry agrotech
  • The sounds are the muffled gurgling of runoff under frozen brooks, and the sharp quork-quork-quork of ravens overhead.2000, William Scheller, Snow Sports, page 170. From the entry quork
  • Urinal and fecal wastes were placed in runoff boxes at the base, midpoint and top of 20cm snow packs.1975, G. D. Bubenzer, J. C. Converse, Impact of Freezing and Thawing Soil Conditions on the Movement of Nutrients by Water from Rural Lands. From the entry urinal
  • GARDEN FLOODER is a lawn and garden irrigating device that allows flooding of large areas without excessive runoff, erosion or evaporation.1965, Science News - Volumes 87-88, page 336. From the entry flooder
  • The region is different with the lowest amount of precipitation, the highest evaporation, and the lowest indicators of relative humidity and surface runoff.2022 March, ibidem, page 84. From the entry Prysyvashshia
  • Cisterns (bôr, bō'r), mentioned frequently in the Bible, are artificial reservoirs, usually cut into bedrock, for collecting and conserving rain runoff from roofs and courtyards.2001, Philip J. King, Lawrence E. Stager, chapter 3, in Life in Biblical Israel, →ISBN, page 126. From the entry cistern
  • Some of the sediment transported during runoff is deposited locally, and a lobe of deposited sediment is formed downstream from the diffluence.1994, H. W. Hjalmarson, Potential Flood Hazards and Hydraulic Characteristics of Distributary-Flow Areas in Maricopa County, Arizona, page 2. From the entry diffluence
  • Ground water seepage along face and base of cliff below houses built along top with surface runoff scars visible downface of cliff.1984, San Diego Coastal State Park System General Plan. From the entry downface
  • Runoff measurements tended to be slightly inaccurate due to underflow or byflow of small but rapid streams flowing in solid or pebbly mountainous channels.1966, Sedimentation - Issue 2, page 2. From the entry byflow
  • Supposedly Pickle has a line on a group of wealthy donors who were about to make a big drop on Chuy's campaign, now that he is in the runoff.2017, Mike Houlihan, Nothin's On The Square: 82 Days on the Mayoral Campaign. From the entry touch
  • In the QPE study area, we observed initially that there was a high degree of small-scale salinity and temperature features likely associated with the typhoon-enhanced river runoff (Figure 1).2009, High-Resolution Hydrographic Surveys near the Shelfbreak in the East China Sea: Joint Studies with National Taiwan University as…. From the entry Pengjia
  • Who fishes in the yellow-coloured monsoonal runoff from the drainages, with sheets of deep water pouring into the wide rivers swollen over their banks, filling vast plains with floodwaters?2006, Alexis Wright, Carpentaria, Constable (2009), page 3. From the entry monsoonal
  • The rapid runoff of torrential storms sweeps soil from this sea of rock, where an island of lichens and mosses (below) anchors a colony of Brocchinia reducta.1989 May, Uwe George, “Venezuela's Islands in Time”, in National Geographic, volume 175, number 5, page 551. From the entry bromeliad
  • Instead, Republicans were barely about to flip the House, and Democrats may even be able to increase their Senate majority depending on the results of the Georgia runoff next month.2022 November 16, Joan E Greve, “Q&A: what does a split Congress mean for US politics?”, in The Guardian. From the entry red wave
  • Although the runoff in the Daqing River Basin will increase, the construction of Xiongan New Area means that the imbalance between the supply and demand of water resources will remain.2020 June 3, Yujie Wang et al., “Climate-related risks in the construction of Xiongan New Area, China”, in Theoretical and Applied…. From the entry Xiongan
  • Some muties were so addled that they kept slurping at the runoff even though the hunt was storming past, the thumps and snaps of men firing clear in the air.1983, Gregory Benford, Against Infinity, New York, N.Y.: Avon Eos, published 1998, →ISBN, page 108. From the entry mutie

Meaning of runoff

  1. noun That portion of precipitation or irrigation on an area which does not infiltrate or evaporate, but instead is discharged from the area.
  2. noun Dissolved chemicals, etc, included in such water.
  3. noun A second or further round of a competition, after other competitors (often all but the last two) have been eliminated.

Full definition of runoff

Questions about runoff in a sentence

How do you use runoff in a sentence?
Runoff is used as a noun. For example: “The runoff of nitrates is poisoning the lake.”
What is a short sentence with runoff?
“The runoff of nitrates is poisoning the lake.”
What does runoff mean?
Runoff means that portion of precipitation or irrigation on an area which does not infiltrate or evaporate, but instead is discharged from the area.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: runoff (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use runoff in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/runoff. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.