different between cloudburst vs drench

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 1

From Middle English drenchen, from Old English dren?an, from Proto-Germanic *drankijan? (compare Dutch drenken ‘to get a drink’, German tränken ‘to water, give a drink’), causative of *drinkan? (“to drink”). More at drink.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??nt?/
• Rhymes: -?nt?

Noun

drench (plural drenches)

1. A draught administered to an animal.
2. (obsolete) A drink; a draught; specifically, a potion of medicine poured or forced down the throat; also, a potion that causes purging.

   • A drench of wine has with success been us'd,
     And through a horn the gen'rous juice infus'd,
     Which, timely taken, op'd his closing jaws,
     But, if too late, the patient's death did cause.

   • 1907, Mark Twain, Christian Science and the Book of Mrs. Eddy

     I took up the 'Christian Scientist' book and read half of it, then took a dipperful of drench and read the other half.

Translations

Verb

drench (third-person singular simple present drenches, present participle drenching, simple past and past participle drenched)

1. To soak, to make very wet.

   • Now dam the ditches and the floods restrain; / Their moisture has already drenched the plain.

2. To cause to drink; especially, to dose (e.g. a horse) with medicine by force.

Related terms

• drenched (adjective)
• drenching (noun)

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English dreng, from Old English dreng (“warrior, soldier”), from Proto-Germanic *drangijaz, cognate to Old Norse drengr.

Noun

drench (plural drenches)

1. (obsolete, Britain) A military vassal, mentioned in the Domesday Book.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Burrill to this entry?)