gully
n. countablen. a small valley or deep channel in the ground that water has worn away. It often looks like a narrow, dry riverbed until it rains.
n. a water-worn ravine or narrow channel in the earth, typically formed by the erosive action of running water during heavy rain.
Rainwater rushed down the gully after the storm.
The hikers had to climb carefully down the steep sides of the gully to reach the other side of the trail.
Years of unchecked soil erosion had transformed the gentle slope into a series of deep gullies that made the land impossible to farm.
Origin uncertain. Possibly from a variant of Middle English golet (“esophagus, gullet”), from Old French goulet, from Latin gula (“throat”). Shift in meaning in Middle English to "water channel, ravine" may have been influenced by Middle English gylle, gille, galle (“deep narrow valley, ravine”); see gill. Compare Dutch geul. Alternatively, from a diminutive of dialectal gull (“fissue, chasm”) + -y (diminutive suffix). See gull, gullick.
From Scots gully, of unknown origin.
Commonly used in geography and civil engineering contexts; also refers to a specific fielding position in the sport of cricket.