catchment

[ kach-muh nt ]

/ ˈkætʃ mənt /

the act of catching water.

something for catching water, as a reservoir or basin.

the water that is caught in such a catchment.

Origin of catchment

First recorded in 1840–50; catch + -ment

The noblest and most-varied scenery in the north-west Himalaya is in the catchment area of the Jhelam.

The Panjab, North-West Frontier Province, and Kashmir |Sir James McCrone Douie
He was off to see to another of his father's interests—that "catchment area" far away up in the mountains.

Mushroom Town |Oliver Onions
Immunity from floods can be effected only by the construction of catchment reservoirs in the highlands or levees in the lowlands.

The Passaic Flood of 1903 |Marshall Ora Leighton
It therefore belongs to the catchment basin of the Sutlej and not to the Indus, and the Tseti-la is a pass of secondary order.

Trans-Himalaya, Vol. 2 (of 2) |Sven Hedin

Of the whole rainfall on the catchment basin, a part only finds its way to the stream.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 14, Slice 1 |Various

catchment

/ (ˈkætʃmənt) /

the act of catching or collecting water

a structure in which water is collected

the water so collected

British the intake of a school from one catchment area