OASIS (oases)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: oases   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does oasis mean? 

• OASIS (noun)
  The noun OASIS has 2 senses:

1. a fertile tract in a desert (where the water table approaches the surface)

2. a shelter serving as a place of safety or sanctuary

  Familiarity information: OASIS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OASIS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A fertile tract in a desert (where the water table approaches the surface)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Hypernyms ("oasis" is a kind of...):

parcel; parcel of land; piece of ground; piece of land; tract (an extended area of land)

Holonyms ("oasis" is a part of...):

desert (arid land with little or no vegetation)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A shelter serving as a place of safety or sanctuary

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

haven; oasis

Hypernyms ("oasis" is a kind of...):

shelter (a structure that provides privacy and protection from danger)

 Context examples 

In their model, they found there can be enough oxygen for microbes throughout Mars, and enough for simple sponges in oases near the poles.

(Simple animals could live in Martian brines, Wikinews)

From their pious oasis they looked dreamily out at the desert of life, a place full of stormings and strivings—comfortless, restless, and overshadowed by evil.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“It has been my lot,” he observed, “to meet, in the diversified panorama of human existence, with an occasional oasis, but never with one so green, so gushing, as the present!”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Now, Laurie felt just then that his heart was entirely broken and the world a howling wilderness, but at the sound of certain words which the old gentleman artfully introduced into his closing sentence, the broken heart gave an unexpected leap, and a green oasis or two suddenly appeared in the howling wilderness.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The gushing fountains which sparkle in the sun, must not be stopped in mere caprice; the oasis in the desert of Sahara must not be plucked up idly.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)