Rain (rān),
v. t.
1. To pour
or shower down from above, like rain from the
clouds.
Then said the Lord
unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you.
Ex. xvi.
4. 2. To bestow in a profuse or abundant manner; as, to rain favors upon a person.
Rain , v. i. [imp. & p. p. Rained (rānd); p. pr. & vb. n. Raining.]
[AS.
regnian, akin to G. regnen, Goth.
rignjan. See Rain,
n.] 1. To fall in drops
from the clouds, as water; -- used mostly with it for a nominative; as, it rains.
The rain it
raineth every day.
Shak. 2.
To fall or drop like
water from the clouds; as, tears rained
from their eyes.
Rain (rān),
n. [OE. rein, AS. regen; akin to OFries. rein, D. & G.
regen, OS. & OHG. regan, Icel., Dan., & Sw. regn, Goth.
rign, and prob. to L. rigare to water, to wet;
cf. Gr. bre`chein to wet, to rain.]
Water falling in drops from the clouds; the descent of water from
the clouds in drops.
Rain is water by the
heat of the
sun divided into very small parts ascending in the air, till, encountering the cold, it be
condensed into clouds, and
descends in drops.
Ray. Fair
days have oft contracted wind and rain.
Milton. &fist; Rain is distinguished from mist by the
size of the
drops, which are distinctly visible. When water falls in very small
drops or particles, it is called mist; and fog is composed of particles so fine as to be not only individually indistinguishable, but
to float or
be suspended in the air. See
Fog, and Mist.
Rain band (Meteorol.), a dark band in
the yellow portion of the solar spectrum near the sodium line, caused by the presence of watery vapor in the
atmosphere, and hence sometimes used in weather predictions. --
Rain bird (Zoöl.), the yaffle, or green woodpecker. [Prov.
Eng.] The name is also applied to various other birds, as to Saurothera vetula of the West Indies. -- Rain fowl (Zoöl.), the channel-bill cuckoo (Scythrops Novæ-Hollandiæ) of Australia. -- Rain gauge, an instrument of various forms for measuring the quantity of rain that falls at any given
place in a given time; a
pluviometer; an ombrometer. -- Rain
goose (Zoöl.),
the red-throated diver, or loon. [Prov. Eng.] -- Rain
prints (Geol.), markings on the surfaces of stratified rocks, presenting an appearance similar to those made by
rain on mud
and sand, and believed to have been so
produced. -- Rain quail. (Zoöl.)
See Quail,
n., 1. -- Rain water, water that has fallen from the clouds in rain.
Rain (rān),
n. & v. Reign. [Obs.]
Spenser.
Hear it pronounced