to come down
129
1.3
- phrasal verb
- /kʌm daʊn/
:
caer
- Look at this view now the rain is coming down like sideways.
Examples
-
But here comes a glacial stream coming down from the ice sheet.
-
And as Lee was talking about, we want the rain to come down.
-
The water is coming down from the hill and running near the north wall.
Fiction book (1990) -
God knows how many trees came down during that storm.
-
That's just water coming down in crazy gusts.
-
Colder than hell, and snow coming down so fast you couldn't see anything outside.
Fiction book (1990) -
The snow is coming down heavily, covering the ground in a thick layer.
-
During the storm, rain began coming down in sheets, soaking everything outside.
-
As we watched the forecast, the weatherman said that precipitation would start coming down by evening.
Synonyms
541
1.0
To fall from clouds as small drops of water
36
3.4
Fall from above in large amounts, like ash or confetti
7
1.0
To rain very lightly with small drops falling slowly
4
3.9
To shine or fall very strongly on a place
1
5.5
To fall from clouds as rain or snow
1
6.5
To rain very hard
1
3.5
To fall from above in large amounts, like rain or ash
Rain that falls very hard
How Heavy
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to stop functioning / become unavailable' is a metaphorical extension of the literal 'come' + 'down' (arrive at a lower state) where 'down' signals loss of operation or availability; this connection is related to other phrasal uses like 'go down' for services. However, the specific sense of system failure is not strictly predictable from the literal constituents for a B1 learner without prior exposure, so the relation is partial rather than fully transparent.
Etymology
Come down paints a simple picture: rain, snow or ash literally move down from the clouds to the ground. That's why come down means 'to fall from the clouds or sky to the ground'.