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Glite Dictionary
to come down heavily

to come down heavily

3.4
Rain that falls very hard
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : caer con fuerza
  • As the dark clouds gathered, we knew it would come down heavily any minute.

Examples

  • The rain began to come down heavily, drenching everything in its path.

  • I watched her smear the perspiration on her forehead with the back of her hand, looking at me hard, and I could hear the rain coming down heavily, like waterfalls gushing onto the concrete around our apartment.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • He made a beautiful long sweeping arch out over the chicken coops, boomeranged in over the roof of the house, lifting his feet to avoid kicking the TV antenna, and came down heavily, perhaps more heavily than he had expected, in our front yard.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • During the storm, the water started to come down heavily, causing flash floods in the streets.

Synonyms

to pelt
vsto come down heavily
8 5.5

To fall very hard, usually about rain

is heavy rain that emphasizes great sustained force rather than sharp strikes
to beat down
vsto come down heavily
4 3.9

To shine or fall very strongly on a place

is specifically about rain falling with great force rather than general strong weather
to rain cats and dogs
vsto come down heavily
  • Informal
3 5.9

To rain very hard

is heavy rain described by great force rather than informal expression
to bucket down
vsto come down heavily
  • UK
1 6.5

To rain very hard

is about great forceful impact rather than steady heavy flow
to rain buckets
vsto come down heavily
  • Informal
1 5.6

To pour a lot of water from the sky

is about violent falling with great force rather than mainly volume
to raining pitchforks
vsto come down heavily
  • Informal
8.9

To rain very heavily with water falling fast and hard

is heavy rain defined by great force not dramatic figurative language
to come down in stair rods
vsto come down heavily
  • Archaic
9.9

To rain very heavily

is focused on great force rather than only strong intensity

Antonyms

to drizzle
7 1.0

To rain very lightly with small drops falling slowly

How Heavy

to come down heavily
3.4
to pour
588 1.0
shower
162 1.0
to drizzle
7 1.0

Surface Forms

come down heavily infinitive
coming down heavily present participle
comes down heavily third person singular
came down heavily past
come down heavily past participle

Morphology

come + down + heavily

The meaning 'to fall with great force' is directly derivable from combining 'come' (move toward) + 'down' (to a lower position) with 'heavily' indicating intensity; together they compose a clear motion + intensity meaning. This is a common, compositional English pattern (used cross-linguistically for precipitation), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents should be able to infer the meaning.

Etymology

Come down heavily gives a simple picture: rain comes down and, because it does so heavily, the drops hit the ground hard. That's why it means 'to rain very hard'.