Word.ws English Dictionary

cloud-burst

cloud-burst is the alternative form of cloudburst.

Meaning of cloudburst

Noun

cloudburst (plural cloudbursts)

  1. A sudden heavy rainstorm.
    • [B]ut the sound . . . expressed an utter abandonment to grief; not the cloud-burst of some passing emotion, but the slow down-pour of a whole heaven of sorrow.1899, Edith Wharton, “A Cup of Cold Water”, in The Greater Inclination
  2. (figuratively) A sudden downfall or shortcoming.
    • "[...] [T]his great storm of a beating would rain down on our backs?"
      "Yours, at least, Sancho," replied Don Quixote, "must be accustomed to such cloudbursts; but mine, brought up on cambric and fine Dutch linen, of course will feel more deeply the pain of this misfortune.Part 1 published in 1605, Part 2 in 1615, translated in 2003, Miguel de Cervantes and translated by Edith Grossman, Don Quixote, page 106

Forms of cloud-burst

pluralcloud-bursts

Questions about cloud-burst

What is cloud-burst the alternative form of?
Cloud-burst is the alternative form of cloudburst.

Words near cloud-burst in the dictionary

  1. cloud street
  2. cloud streets
  3. cloud suck
  4. cloud up
  5. cloud-built
  6. cloud-burst
  7. cloud-bursts
  8. cloud-capt
  9. cloud-cuckoo-land
  10. cloud-first
  11. cloud-headed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cloud-burst (page history and authors); cloudburst (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “cloud-burst.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cloud-burst. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.