drizzle
Syllables: driz·zle/ˈdɹɪzəl/
drizzle verb: to rain lightly.
Verb
drizzle (third-person singular simple present drizzles, present participle drizzling, simple past and past participle drizzled)
- To rain lightly.
- We had planned a picnic for Joe's birthday, but it ended up drizzling all day.
- To shed slowly in minute drops or particles.
- And from mine eyes the drizling teares descend,
As on your boughes the ysicles depend.1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Ianuarye. Ægloga Prima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC - When the sun sets, the air doth drizzle dew;
But for the sunset of my brother’s son
It rains downright.c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- And from mine eyes the drizling teares descend,
- To pour slowly and evenly, especially oil or honey in cooking.
- The recipe says to toss the salad and then drizzle olive oil on it.
- Synonyms:
- dribble
- To cover by pouring in this manner.
- The recipe says to toss the salad and then drizzle it in olive oil.
- Drizzle with oil and a few squeezes from a lemon wedge or two and serve at once, with remaining lemon wedges on the side.2022, Melissa Clark, Dinner in One, →ISBN, page 49
- To urinate.
- She'll be right back, had to drizzle before we leave.
- To carry out parfilage, the process of unravelling.
- She found that all those ladies who did not play at cards occupied their fingers with parfilage.[...] Here, the work was called drizzling. Ladies begged their friends to give them pieces of the gold lace used on uniforms and the gold tassels of sword-belts, they picked out the metal threads, and by...1908 January–June, James Knowles, “Extracts from the Journal of Lady Mary Coke”, in The Nineteenth Century And After, volume 63, New York, N.Y.; London: Leonard Scott Publication Co.; Spottiswoode &...
Noun
drizzle (countable and uncountable, plural drizzles)
- Light rain.
- Up here, it's a 'dreich' day with steady drizzle. Deep drainage channels either side of the track are already more like streams: Rannoch Moor is a wet place.2023 November 29, Paul Clifton, “West is best in the Highlands”, in RAIL, number 997, page 39
- Very small, numerous, and uniformly dispersed water drops, mist, or sprinkle. Unlike fog droplets, drizzle falls to the ground.
- No longer pouring, the rain outside slowed down to a faint drizzle.
- Water.
- Stop drinking all of my drizzle!
- Something that is drizzled.
- The warm apple tart, made to order, had a definitively crisp shell. Its filling of apples was tender and sweet, and the drizzle of caramel rum sauce added sophistication.1999 November 21, Catherine Jones, “Restaurants: Palate and Palette”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 May 2015
- Thick shavings of Parmesan were plentiful, but the drizzle of “white truffle oil” promised on the menu had been forgotten.2009 May 29, Patricia Brooks, “A Retro Rebirth at a Storied Location”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 18 Sep 2019
- A cake onto which icing, honey or syrup has been drizzled in an artistic manner.
- The rest of the day is spent trying to concentrate on ingredient labels, ordering supplies, baking some fairy cakes for a hen party and two lemon drizzles, one for a new baby and one for an old dear's birthday.2009, Jules Stanbridge, Sugar and Spice
drizzle meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
drizzle in Hindi
- to rain lightly
- फुहार phuhār
- light rain
- फुहार phuhār, झींसी jhīnsī
drizzle in Tamil
- to rain lightly
- தூறு tūṟu
- to pour slowly and evenly
- தூவு tūvu
- to urinate
- சிறுநீர் கழி ciṟunīr kaḻi, சிறுநீர் பாய்ச்சு ciṟunīr pāyccu
- light rain
- தூறல் tūṟal
drizzle in Marathi
- light rain
- कणवर्षा kaṇvarṣā
drizzle in Urdu
- drizzle, spray
- پھوار phuvār
- drizzle, light rain
- بوندا باندی bū̃dā bā̃dī
More languagesFewer languages
- drizzle in Telugu
- చినుకు cinuku
- drizzle in Malayalam
- ചാറുക cāṟuka, ചാറ്റൽമഴ cāṟṟalmaḻa
- drizzle in Kannada
- ಪಾರುಂಬನಿ, ತೂರಲು, ಸೋನೆ, ತಂದಲ್
- drizzle in Punjabi
- ਕਿਣ ਮਿਣ kiṇ miṇ, ਫੂਰ੍ਹ phūrh
- drizzle in Gujarati
- ઝરમર jharmar
- drizzle in Tagalog
- ambon, tubig
- drizzle in Arabic
- رَذَّ raḏḏa, بَغَشَ baḡaša, تبول, رَذَاذ raḏāḏ
- drizzle in Indonesian
- gerimis
- drizzle in Persian
- نَمنَم باریدن, نَمنَم
- drizzle in Vietnamese
- phùn
Examples of drizzle in a sentence
- The thundershower poured down on us as we ran home, but returned to a drizzle after several minutes.
- It felt like rain, but it barely drizzled.
- She drizzled some chamoy over her mango cubes.
Synonyms of drizzle
Forms of drizzle
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | drizzles |
| present participle | drizzling |
| past participle | drizzled |
| past | drizzled |
| Noun | |
| plural | drizzles |
Origin of drizzle
Perhaps a back-formation from dryseling, a dissimilated variant of Middle English drysning (“a falling of dew”), from Northumbrian Old English drysnan (“to extinguish”), related to Old English drēosan (“to fall, to decline”), making it cognate to modern English droze and drowse. Compare also dialectal Swedish drösla.
Words formed from drizzle
Words that rhyme with drizzle
Questions about drizzle
- What does drizzle mean?
- Drizzle means to rain lightly.
- What is drizzle in Hindi?
- Drizzle in Hindi is फुहार (phuhār), झींसी (jhīnsī). See Drizzle meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is drizzle?
- Drizzle can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce drizzle?
- Drizzle is pronounced /ˈdɹɪzəl/.
- What is the past tense of drizzle?
- The past tense of drizzle is drizzled.
Words near drizzle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: drizzle (page history and authors); بوندا باندی (Urdu) (page history and authors); చినుకు (Telugu) (page history and authors); ചാറുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); drizzle (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਕਿਣ ਮਿਣ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ઝરમર (Gujarati) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-drizzle.ogg.
Cite this entry: “drizzle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/drizzle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.