أَزْمَةٌ

[verbal noun of un. of 1: and hence,] A single act of eating; (K, TA;) i. e. an eating but once in the course of the day; like وَجْبَةٌ [q. v.]. (TA.)

Also, (Fr, S, Msb, K,) and ↓ أَزَمَةٌ and ↓ ازِمَةٌ, (Fr, K, [the last in the CK like the first,]) Straitness, hardness, or distress; (S, Msb, K;) drought, dearth, or sterility: (S, Msb:) plural (of the first, TA) ↓ أَزْمٌ, (K,) [or rather this is a coll. gen. n.,] like as تَمْرٌ is of تَمْرَةٌ, (TA,) [but originally a verbal noun of أَزَمَ. q. v.,] and إِزَمٌ, (K,) like as بِدَرٌ is of بَدْرَةٌ. (TA.) Hence the tradition, اشْتَدِّى أَزْمَةٌ تَنْفَرِجِى, meaning Become severe, O year of drought, or dearth, or sterility: then thou wilt pass away: though it has been strangely asserted that ازمة is here the proper name of a woman, to whom, on an occasion of her being taken with the pains of labour, these words were said by the Prophet. (TA.) You also say سَنَةٌ أَزْمَةٌ and ↓ أَزِمَةٌ, (K,) so in the copies of the K, there said to be like فَرِحَةٌ, but correctly ↓ ازِمَةٌ, as in the M &c., (TA,) [or both are correct, being particle ns., respectively, of أَزِمَ and أَزَمَ,] and ↓ أَزُومَةٌ, meaning A distressful, or an afflictive, year; (K;) a year of vehement drought or dearth or sterility. (TA.) And أَوَازِمُ [plural of ↓ ازِمَةٌ, used as a subst.,] signifies Distressful, or afflictive, years. (TA.) ↓ أَزَامِ, also, (K,) or, according to Aboo-'Alee, ↓ أَزُومُ, (IB,) [each a proper name, as denoting a kind of personification,] signifies The year of drought or dearth or sterility. (K.) And you say, ↓ نَزَلَتْ بِهِمْ أَزَام and ↓ أَزُومُ Severe straitness, or distress, befell them. (S, TA. *)