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Drizzle

//ˈdɹɪz.l// noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Light rain. countable, uncountable

    "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."

  2. 2
    very light rain; stronger than mist but less than a shower wordnet
  3. 3
    Very small, numerous, and uniformly dispersed water drops, mist, or sprinkle. Unlike fog droplets, drizzle falls to the ground. countable, uncountable

    "No longer pouring, the rain outside slowed down to a faint drizzle."

  4. 4
    Water. countable, slang, uncountable

    "Stop drinking all of my drizzle!"

  5. 5
    A cake onto which icing, honey or syrup has been drizzled in an artistic manner. countable, uncountable

    "April 19, 2013,Felicity Cloake, "How to Cook the Perfect Lemon Drizzle Cake" in The Guardian Drizzle is not normally good news. Not when it's falling from the sky, not when it's replacing a decent helping of sauce, and especially not when it's found on a menu in close proximity to the words "balsamic vinegar". Deliciously sticky, sweet and sour lemon drizzle cake is the one, and very honourable, exception."

Verb
  1. 1
    To rain lightly. impersonal

    "We had planned a picnic for Joe's birthday, but it ended up drizzling all day."

  2. 2
    moisten with fine drops wordnet
  3. 3
    To shed slowly in minute drops or particles. ambitransitive

    "And from mine eyes the drizling teares descend, As on your boughes the ysicles depend."

  4. 4
    rain lightly wordnet
  5. 5
    To pour slowly and evenly, especially oil or honey in cooking. transitive

    "The recipe says to toss the salad and then drizzle olive oil on it."

Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    To cover by pouring in this manner. transitive

    "The recipe says to toss the salad and then drizzle it in olive oil."

  2. 7
    To urinate. slang

    "She'll be right back, had to drizzle before we leave."

  3. 8
    To carry out parfilage, the process of unravelling. dated

    "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 selling these they realised considerable sums. Prince Leopold himself drizzled continually[...]"

Etymology

Etymology 1

Perhaps a back-formation from dryseling, a dissimilated variant of Middle English drysning (“a falling of dew”), from 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.

Etymology 2

Perhaps a back-formation from dryseling, a dissimilated variant of Middle English drysning (“a falling of dew”), from 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.

See also for "drizzle"

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