Definition of the Great Depression from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary


the Great Depression

; NAmE
(also the Depression)
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the period of severe economic failure in most countries of the world that lasted from 1929 until World War II. It began in the US when the New York Stock Exchange fell on 29 October 1929, known as Black Tuesday. Many businesses and banks failed and millions of people lost their jobs. President Franklin D Roosevelt improved the situation with his New Deal policy, but the Great Depression was only ended by industrial production for the war.