Words and Expressions for when it rains a lot or violently.
To rain very heavily and nonstop.
- It has been pouring in Delhi
- The rain is pouring/ pouring down.
- It’s pouring with rain and Laura only has a thin dress on.
- We drove all the way through pouring rain.
Downpour
A sudden and unexpected heavy fall of rain that lasts for a couple of minutes but soaks everybody out in the open.
- He ran into a barn to shelter from a sudden downpour.
Deluge
A sudden, very heavy fall of rain.
- About a dozen homes were damaged in the deluge.
- This little stream can become a deluge when it rains heavily.
Drive
(Of rain, wind or snow) to move with great force in a particular direction
- Rain drove against the window.
- He crashed into a tree in a driving rain.
Other expressions for when it rains hard and heavily
- Rain pelted the windows.
- You can't go out it's pelting down..
- It's pelting (down) with rain...
- We drove through pelting rain.
Lash down (Written)
- Suddenly rain lashed (down) against the windows.
- The rain was absolutely lashing down.
Sheet/come (down) (Informal)
- The rain/it is coming down in sheets/torrents.
- Slick sheets of rain came pouring down, so hard that they were bouncing off the marble floor.
- We can't go out yet, it's sheeting down outside.
- The rain was sheeting against the windows.
Come down in buckets (informal)
If it rains bucket, it rains a lot:
- The rain was still coming down in buckets, when we back out.
Bucket down (informal, Bre)
- It's been bucketing down all day.
- If it hadn’t been bucketing down with rain and blowing a gale. I would have had a glorious view.
Piss down (Brit, informal)
- It's really pissing (it) down here at the moment.
Cloudburst
A sudden, very heavy fall of rain.
Teem down (Brit)
- It's been teeming down all day.
- The rain was teeming down.
- It's teeming (down) with rain.
It’s tipping (it) down (Bre)
(Spoken) said when it is raining very heavily.
- It was absolutely tipping it down.
Rain cats and dogs
Old-fashioned. Informal. To rain very heavily.
Old-fashioned. Informal. To rain very heavily.
Rain hard/heavily
- It had been raining heavily all day.
Hard / heavy/ pouring/pelting / torrential/lashing rain
- Weeks of heavy rain have washed away roads and bridges.
- We drove all the day with the pouring rain.
- We ran through the cold wind and pelting rain.
- The rain came down/fell in torrents.
- We received torrential downpour/rain within a week
- An inch of rain fell in an hour.
- Gusts of rain lashed down the narrow alleys.
- Six times in nine days, storms struck, dumping nearly 13 in. of rain, killing at least 24 people and causing damage estimated at $425 million.
And also some useful expressions
-That's quite a storm
- It's really coming down.
The rains: heavy rain that falls during a particular period in the year in tropical countries: In countries where rain only falls in certain seasons, this rain is referred to as the rains.
- ...the spring, when the rains came...
- ...the spring, when the rains came...
- Villagers are now waiting for the rains to come so that the rice will grow.
- This is the third year in a row that the rains have failed.
- This is the third year in a row that the rains have failed.
Monsoon: The heavy rain that falls in India
Rain swept
A rain swept place is a place it is raining heavily
- A cold and rain swept raining.
- Saturday's game was rained out.
- Most of the games have been rained out.
- ...a rained-out cricket match.
- ...a rained-out cricket match.
With the same meaning: constant rain forced the abandonment of the Saturday's competitions.
Be washed out
If an event is washed out, it cannot continue because of rain.
If an event is washed out, it cannot continue because of rain.
- The summer fair was washed out by the English weather.
Words and Expressions for when it rains slowly or in small quantity.
Mist
Water in the form of particles floating or falling in the atmosphere at or near the surface of the earth and approaching the form of rain. It is not really rain.
- It was misting with the rain yesterday.
Light rain
- The light rain has been falling on the village.
Mizzle
A word which is used mainly in N.Britain meaning the rain made of many very small drops. A mistlike rain
- It's been mizzling most of the morning.
Drizzle
Rain in very small light drops, when it's just starting to raining we have to say: it's drizzling.
- Tomorrow will be cloudy with outbreaks of rain and drizzle.
- Tomorrow will be cloudy with outbreaks of rain and drizzle.
- A light drizzle had started by the time we left.
- It's been drizzling all day.
- A drizzly afternoon
Shower
A brief and usually light fall of rain or snow.
- After a shower of rain/rain shower, the road around the pond becomes very muddy and - slippery. (Note that a rain shower is more common than a shower of rain)
- You're soaked! Did you get caught in the shower?
- There will be thundery/wintry showers over many parts of the country.
Sprinkling (Ame) Sprinkle (Bre)
To rain lightly in scattered drops
- He was wet with a sprinkling of rain.
Spit (Brit) (not common in the US
Isolated large drops of rain, just before the downpour
- If it's only spitting (with rain), perhaps we don't need waterproofs.
Spot
a small amount(mainly Bre):
- It was spotting with rain.
- I felt a few spots of rain.
- I felt a few spots of rain.
- Spots of rain began to fall.
Chuck down
A British expression meaning to rain very heavily
- It chucked it down all afternoon.
- It chucked it down all afternoon.
Sun shower (common in Australia & New Zealand )
A rain that falls during a sunny day, and lasts for only a short time.
<100 microns - mist droplets are so small that they remain suspended in the air.
100-200 Mizzle
200-300 Drizzle
300-1,000 Light rain
>1000 Rain
Words and Expressions for when the rain gets slowly in intensity.
- It’s raining solidly since our arrival. Solidly is not very common with rain in all versions of English language. It describes the amount of time it has been raining. We can use in place of it, the sentence the followings:
- It’s been raining steadily for a week.
- It’s been raining constantly for a week.
- It’s been raining incessantly for a week.
- It’s been raining persistently for a week.
- It has been raining relentlessly.
- It has been raining excessively.
The noise that rain makes
To hit a surface regularly and make a sound like a drum, or to make something do this:
-The rain drummed loudly on the roof.
-He pointed up to the roof through which the steady drum/drumming of raindrops/rain could be heard.
-The patter of the driving rain on the window,
-Rain pattered steadily against/on the glass.
Other synonyms: BEAT, rhythm, patter, tap, pounding, thump, thud, rattle, pitter-patter, pit-a-pat, rat-a-tat, thrum.
When the rain hits on a surface
- Soon sheets of rain whip against the plane's windows.
- The rain splashed down on her face.
- Drops of rain are starting to splash on the windows.
- A most phlegmatic man, steadily working on as the rain splashes down.
- The rain was beating on the windowpanes.
- He stared at the rain spattering at the glass. They could hear raindrops spattering on the roof of the caravan.
- He had a vague impression of rain pounding on the packed earth.
- The rain splattered against the French windows.
Words that come with Rain
- Rain had begun to streak the window panes/ on the windshield..
- Outside the rain continued to fall steadily.
- After a year of drought, the people are now waiting the rain to come.
- People were lining up for buses in the rain.
- …responsible for absorbing and reflecting sunlight are likely to interfere with the process that produces rain.
- Warmth and moisture heading down again from the cold north, cause heavy rain
- A Pacific front brought rain, strong winds and thunder.
- …by storms that brought a total of 32.39 cm (12.75 in.) of rain.
- Weather was even more erratic than usual; giving some places too little rain and others too much.
- Tehran , Iran
- …are talking about the scant 2.16 in. of rain that has fallen this year
- The sugarcane crop is shriveling for lack/shortage of rain
- With colder layers above it, water can condense out as a sudden burst of rain.
- Gusts of rain lashed down the narrow alleys
- Downtown Los Angeles
- Inches of rain that fell on Bombay India
- January is usually a very cold month with plenty of rain and sometimes snow window-busting hailstorm of a rain
- Outbreaks of heavy rain will spread across Cornwall West Devon today with rainfall totals of 15 mm or more in three hours, and 25 mm or more in the period.
- …been linked to everything from the strength of ocean trade winds to the amount of rain that falls across the U.S.
- The rain could be coming back today and tomorrow.
Rain vs. Rainfall
Rainfall is the amount of rain that falls on an area in a particular period of time.
Rainfall is more formal than rain.
Rain and rainfall can be used interchangeably in the sentences:
- The yesterday’s rain /rainfall caused flooding in the city.
- Heavy rainfall/rain ruined the match.
Rainfall can be used with adjectives such as average, mean, annual, low , moderate normal, poor which they are not very common with rain.
- We've had a long period of low rainfall.
- The city has received only half its average rainfall of four inches.
- Annual rainfall was lower last year than ever before.
- Her work includes measuring the local rainfall.
Rainfall can not be used in sentences like the followings instead of rain:
- Rain (and not rainfall) pelted the windows.
- Suddenly rain (and not rainfall) lashed (down) against the windows.
You can only use "a" when you are describing a type of rain, not talking about rain in general .So, a light rain, a cold rain.
The rain is used when you refer to a specified rain:
- There has been raining the whole last week. The rain caused flooding in the town.
Rain is used to indicate that you are talking about rain in general.
- It’s starting to spit (Brit)
- I had two miles to go and it was just coming on to rain.
- The rain came just as we set off.
- The rain had set in steadily by the time we got home.
- The rain came just as we set off.
- The rain had set in steadily by the time we got home.
-The rain is still coming down.
-The rain is still falling.
- We came into the house to get out of the rain
- We came into the house to avoid more/further rain.
- We came into the house to find shelter from the rain. Some people object to find shelter, - so it’s better to rewrite it into the sentence: We hoped to find shelter before the rain arrives.
- We came into the house to shelter ourselves from the rain.
- We came into the house to take shelter from the rain.
- We ran into a barn to shelter from the rain. (Commonly heard in British variety and less common in American version.)
- Take an umbrella to protect you from the rain.
- come in out of the rain (literary)
Words or Expressions instead of rain
There is 30%
- It was a miserable wet day. (Rainy)
- The race was held in the wet (rainy weather).
- It was the wettest October for many years.
- The weather may turn wet later on in the week.
No matter whether it rains or the sun shines; in any sort of weather.
Don't worry. I'll be there come rain or shine. We'll hold the picnic—rain or shine.
Rain in on someone or something
[For rain] to enter a window or other opening and get someone or something wet.
- Carol left the window open, and it rained in on her in the night.
- The storm rained in on my carpet!
- The storm rained in on my carpet!
Hold off
If rain or a storm holds off, it does not start immediately.
- The rain held off until after the game.
Get wet in the rain
- More than three inches of rain soaked pedestrians.
- The rain had soaked through every layer of his clothing.
- The rain poured down, soaking their hair.
- Some Brazilians spent hours in drenching rain just for a glimpse of rain.
...the rain-drenched streets of the capital.
- They got drenched/ soaked (to the skin) in the rain like everyone else.
- We arrived home completely sodden.
- His green-striped cape sodden with rain during the funeral ceremony.
- The man in the street was wet through in the rain (completely wet)
Soaking/dripping/sopping wet (=very wet)
- We got soaking wet just going from the car to the house.
- We got soaking wet just going from the car to the house.
- I had to cycle in the rain and got soaking (= very) wet
To make something slightly wet:
- Rain had dampened the tent so we left it to dry in the afternoon sun.
- The rain had made the walls damp. Our clothes had got a bit damp.
- Tonight there’s a 40 percent chance of rain with a low around 46.
- Wednesday there’s a 40 percent chance of rain with a high near 56.
- There is a 22% higher chance of rain on Saturdays than on Mondays
- They say we're supposed to get two to three inches of rain tonight
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