cloud bank
1
3.9
- noun
- /klaʊd bæŋk/
:
banco de nubes
- As the tug turns into the harbor channel, the sun rises under a cloud bank of brilliant red and orange.
- cloud bank where lightning
- disappeared behind a cloud bank
- cloud bank was rolling
Examples
-
From our campsite, we watched a thick cloud bank roll in, signaling an approaching storm.
-
From a distance, they looked like a flock of vultures against the blinding whiteness of the cloud bank.
Fiction book (1999) -
The planes should make it in today, despite heavy cloud banks.
Fiction book (1996) -
A cloud bank was rolling in on the horizon.
Fiction book (1992) -
They're under that cloud bank.
-
She shot out the bottom of the cloud bank, and there they were.
Fiction book (1998) -
On the Oregon coast, most days the sun just vanished into a cloud bank an hour or two before sunset.
Fiction book (2002) -
The sun comes up over a spectacular cloud bank as the Arctic Warrior drifts alongside the Chimera.
Fiction book (2002) -
When he reached the hump of the highway entrance ramp, a marvelous cloud bank, pink-tinged like the lip of a conch, loomed up at him from the shallows of the eastern sky.
Fiction book (2001) -
As the sun set, it illuminated a stunning cloud bank that stretched across the horizon.
Synonyms
102
1.0
A large group of small things moving together in the air
Antonyms
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a large mass or layer of clouds' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'cloud' (visible mass of water droplets) with 'bank' (a contiguous accumulation or row). This noun+noun compounding follows a common, cross-linguistic pattern (e.g., 'bank of clouds', 'cloud bank') so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The noun cloud bank comes from a simple picture: cloud and bank, with bank meaning a 'pile' or 'row' of something, so you can imagine a long, thick pile of clouds. That's why cloud bank means 'a large mass or layer of clouds'.