different between cloudburst vs cloudbust

English

Alternative forms

• cloud-burst

Etymology

cloud +? burst

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?kla?d?b?st/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?kla?d?b??st/
• Hyphenation: cloud?burst

Noun

cloudburst (plural cloudbursts)

1. A sudden heavy rainstorm.
   • 1899, Edith Wharton, "A Cup of Cold Water" in The Greater Inclination:

     [B]ut the sound . . . expressed an utter abandonment to grief; not the cloud-burst of some passing emotion, but the slow down-pour of a whole heaven of sorrow.

   • 1936 Aug. 17, "Miscellany," Time (retrieved 20 May 2014):

     In Uniontown, Pa., John Walchesky & family rushed from their house when lightning set it afire, rushed in again when a cloudburst put out the blaze.

   • 2007 Feb. 25, Norman Howard, "Devotion, chapter 1" (book excerpt), New York Times (retrieved 20 May 2014):

     [H]e walked across the lawn, wet from a fleeting late-afternoon cloudburst, the first rain in a month.

Synonyms

• cloudbust

Translations

English

Etymology

cloud +? bust

Noun

cloudbust (plural cloudbusts)

1. (dialect) A cloudburst.
   • 1929, Boys' Life (June 1929, page 72)

     A sudden cloudbust up in the hills during the night […] swelled the creek

Related terms

• cloudbuster
• cloudbusting