Word.ws English Dictionary

rain fire and brimstone

Syllables: rain fire and brim·stoneUK/ˈɹeɪn ˈfaɪ.ə(ɹ)(ə)n ˈbɹɪmˌstəʊn//ˈɹeɪn ˈfaɪɚ(ə)n ˈbɹɪmˌstoʊn/

rain fire and brimstone verb: to send horror or destruction.

Verb

rain fire and brimstone (third-person singular simple present rains fire and brimstone, present participle raining fire and brimstone, simple past and past participle rained fire and brimstone)

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To send horror or destruction.
    • That day I raised my hand and swore obedience and loyalty to God, country and the Marine Corps, not necessarily in that order, and promised to rain fire and brimstone upon all enemies happened to be only two weeks after the buildup of troops began in Vietnam with the landing of the Ninth Marine...2003, Ray Hildreth, Charles W. Sasser, chapter 1, in Hill 488, New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, →ISBN, pages 20–21
    • "After punching him, and making a report, how do I go back and with a ridiculous question like that?" / "Unless you think I am lying you have to. You have no choice." / "What if I don't?" / "I will rain fire and brimstone on you."2012 March 26, William deGraftColeman, chapter 19, in The Gods Declare, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 206

Forms of rain fire and brimstone

third-person singular presentrains fire and brimstone
present participleraining fire and brimstone
past participlerained fire and brimstone
pastrained fire and brimstone

Origin of rain fire and brimstone

A reference to the The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 1611, →OCLC, Psalms 11:6: “Upon the wicked hee [God] shall raine snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.”

Questions about rain fire and brimstone

What does rain fire and brimstone mean?
Rain fire and brimstone means to send horror or destruction.
What part of speech is rain fire and brimstone?
Rain fire and brimstone is a verb.
How do you pronounce rain fire and brimstone?
Rain fire and brimstone is pronounced /ˈɹeɪn ˈfaɪ.ə(ɹ)(ə)n ˈbɹɪmˌstəʊn/ (UK).
What is the past tense of rain fire and brimstone?
The past tense of rain fire and brimstone is rained fire and brimstone.

Words near rain fire and brimstone in the dictionary

  1. rain delays
  2. rain doctor
  3. rain doctors
  4. rain dogs and cats
  5. rain down
  6. rain fire and brimstone
  7. rain follows the plough
  8. rain follows the plow
  9. rain forest
  10. rain forests
  11. rain frog

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rain fire and brimstone (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-rain fire and brimstone.ogg, en-au-rain fire and brimstone.ogg.

Cite this entry: “rain fire and brimstone.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rain_fire_and_brimstone. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.