pelt down
Come down heavily
Pelt down describes rain falling heavily and forcefully, with the intensity suggesting the rain strikes surfaces hard.
We got caught in a storm that pelted down for an hour.
The phrase can also describe other things falling in a similar manner, like hail or sleet.
British speakers sometimes use it without an object to mean simply that it's raining hard: It's pelting down out there.
- heavy rainIntense sustained precipitation
- rainstormHeavy precipitation event
- torrentViolent rushing flow
- torrential rainExtremely heavy precipitation
- rainfallWater falling from clouds
teem · downpour · rain cats and dogs · cats and dogs · cloudburst · stair rods · monsoon · bombard · barrage · driving rain · stream · deluge · open the floodgates · hailstorm · cascade · squall · flood · thunderstorm