عرم

Core meaning

The holding back of water and its violence: the dam, whose breach lets the flood loose.

Uses

1. ٱلْعَرِم → "the dam" : the structure that holds back the water, named by the flood it lets loose.

   • «فَأَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ سَيْلَ ٱلْعَرِمِ» — "so We sent upon them the destructive flood of the dam" (34:16)

Evidence from the text

The word appears only once, and the verse explains it by what follows. Saba' had "two gardens, on the right and on the left" (34:15); they turned away, the flood of the dam was let loose, and God replaced "their two gardens with two gardens bearing bitter fare" (34:16). The flood is that of the dam: its breach destroys what it used to keep alive.

See also

سيل (the flood)