downpouring

Pluraldownpourings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of downpour.

   By the time the game started, it was downpouring and the field had turned to mud.

   Downpouring rain flooded the underpass within an hour.

   Note

   A weather verb, and like rain or snow it normally takes the empty subject it: it was downpouring by kickoff. The same form can stand before a noun as a participle adjective, as in downpouring rain, where it describes the rain itself instead of reporting the weather.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The pouring down of something, as of rain or snow from the sky.

   A steady downpouring of ash from the volcano buried the village roads.

   The spring downpourings filled the reservoir to the brim.

   Similarfall, shower, deluge

   Note

   Where a downpour is a heavy fall of rain, this noun names the act of falling itself, so it stretches to whatever comes down and need not be heavy. In Irving Werner's Dancing Down the Street, the white downpourings are gentle snowfalls, products of kindness rather than rancor. The plural treats each fall as a separate event.

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