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Glite Dictionary
meteor shower

meteor shower

35 3.4
Many bright shooting stars appear in the night sky at once
  • noun
  • /ˈmiːtiɔr ˈʃaʊər/
: lluvia de meteoros
  • You won't want to miss the Geminid meteor shower this year.
  • the meteor shower peak
  • Perseid meteor shower
  • Leonid meteor shower

You know, people would actually go outside before the atmosphere was destroyed by a giant meteor shower.

Examples

  • The Perseid meteor shower will put on a nice show this year.

    Academic text (2005)

  • There is always a heavy meteor shower this time of the year.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • So I invited them to watch the meteor shower with us.

    PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie (2023)

  • Hope you enjoyed that meteor shower last night.

    Pete's Christmas (2013)

  • Did you see the meteor shower?

    Aliens in the Attic (2009)

  • Few people realize January brings the meteor shower with the highest average rate.

    Academic text (2005)

  • The 2006 Quadrantid meteor shower benefits from the Moon's absence.

    Academic text (2005)

  • Astronomers think the Draconid meteor shower could have an outburst this year.

    Academic text (2005)

  • We're taking a camping trip to Death Valley to watch the meteor shower next month.

  • I stayed up all night to watch the meteor shower on the eleventh.

Synonyms

Quadrantid
vsmeteor shower
  • Specialized
1 9.9

A meteor shower that appears every January in the night sky

describes the same general event not tied to a specific date or name
Aquarid
vsmeteor shower
  • Specialized
1 9.9

A meteor shower that appears to come from the group of stars called Aquarius

refers to the general event of many shooting stars appearing from one point

Surface Forms

meteor shower singular
meteor showers plural

Morphology

meteor + shower

The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'meteor' (a small space object that creates light) with 'shower' (a brief fall or sudden falling items): it denotes a fall or display of many meteors. The use of 'shower' for a group of falling objects is a common, cross-linguistic metaphor and follows a regular noun+noun compositional pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both words will understand it.

Etymology

Meteor shower comes from a simple picture: many small lights falling like rain. When people saw lots of 'shooting stars' coming from one spot, they compared meteors to a shower, so it means a time when many meteors are seen.