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Glite Dictionary
to rain out

to rain out

4 4.6
To cancel an event like a game or concert because of rain
  • phrasal verb
  • /reɪn aʊt/
  • US
translation icon : cancelar por lluvia
  • Unfortunately, the baseball game was rained out, so we went home early.

Examples

  • I had attempted to recruit a small army of strapping, oldish men to help me out, but we got rained out last weekend, and I just wanted to make some progress without having to coordinate another work party.

    Blog text (11)

  • The day of the event, the game got rained out.

    National Anthem Girl (2019)

  • A lot of my games got rained out.

    Blog text (11)

  • The baseball game's rained out?

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Guess the picnic got rained out.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Game 4 and 5 would have been rained out, and they still couldn't hold them because of transportation issues.

    Blog text (11)

  • We, we drove up to Green Bay to see a soccer game that more or less got rained out at Lambeau Field.

  • Contreras had his rehab appearance rained out last night.

    Blog text (29)

  • But if they do get rained out tonight, he'll be lined up to pitch the play-in game if it's necessary.

    Blog text (11)

  • When an "Evening Under the Stars," featuring a concert on the Mall by a military band, was rained out, music lovers instead enjoyed a "Monuments by Moonlight" tour of Washington's high spots.

    Academic text (1997)

Synonyms

to wash out
vsto rain out
  • UK
1 4.4

Cancel an outdoor event because of heavy rain

is used mainly for sports games rather than any event

Antonyms

to proceed
763 3.0

Begin or continue an action after a pause, often as planned

to carry on
253 2.7

To continue doing something after an interruption or when it is difficult

Surface Forms

rain out infinitive
rained out past
rained out past participle
raining out present participle
rains out third person singular

Morphology

rain + out

The meaning 'to cause an event to be cancelled because of rain' is partially inferable from 'rain' (precipitation) and the particle 'out' suggesting cessation or removal. However, using 'out' to signal cancellation is a phrasal-verb pattern that may not be fully predictable to a B1 learner who simply knows the isolated words, so the expression is only partially transparent.

Etymology

Rain out comes from the image of heavy rain falling on an outdoor event so people must be sent out or the activity must stop. That's why it now means 'to cancel or interrupt' a game or other outdoor event.