DRIZZLE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does drizzle mean? 

• DRIZZLE (noun)
  The noun DRIZZLE has 1 sense:

1. very light rain; stronger than mist but less than a shower

  Familiarity information: DRIZZLE used as a noun is very rare.

• DRIZZLE (verb)
  The verb DRIZZLE has 2 senses:

1. rain lightly

2. moisten with fine drops

  Familiarity information: DRIZZLE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DRIZZLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Very light rain; stronger than mist but less than a shower

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Synonyms:

drizzle; mizzle

Hypernyms ("drizzle" is a kind of...):

rain; rainfall (water falling in drops from vapor condensed in the atmosphere)

Derivation:

drizzle (rain lightly)

drizzly (wet with light rain)

• DRIZZLE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they drizzle    ... he / she / it drizzles   
Past simple: drizzled   
Past participle: drizzled   
-ing form: drizzling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Rain lightly

Classified under:

Verbs of raining, snowing, thawing, thundering

Synonyms:

drizzle; mizzle

Context example:

When it drizzles in summer, hiking can be pleasant

Hypernyms (to "drizzle" is one way to...):

rain; rain down (precipitate as rain)

Sentence frame:

It is ----ing

Sentence example:

It was drizzleing all day long

Derivation:

drizzle (very light rain; stronger than mist but less than a shower)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Moisten with fine drops

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

drizzle; moisten

Context example:

drizzle the meat with melted butter

Hypernyms (to "drizzle" is one way to...):

splash; splosh; sprinkle (cause (a liquid) to spatter about, especially with force)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

Sentence example:

They drizzle the bread with melted butter

 Context examples 

Using ground-based and satellite measurements, researchers recorded drizzle at minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit and below lasting for more than 7.5 hours at McMurdo Station, in Antarctica.

(Drizzle at sub-zero temps recorded in Antarctica, National Science Foundation)

Typically, there is a slow drizzle of escaping electrons, but occasionally impulsive bunches of particles, called microbursts, are scattered out of the belts.

(FIREBIRD II and NASA Mission Locate Whistling Space Electrons’ Origins, NASA)

It was a gray scene, greasy gray, and the rain drizzled greasily on the pavement stones.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

One day, Traddles (who had just come home through the drizzling sleet from Court) took a paper out of his desk, and asked me what I thought of that handwriting?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It drizzled a little, shone a little, blew a little, and didn't make up its mind till it was too late for anyone else to make up theirs.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The imprisonment of Wolf Larsen had happened most opportunely, for what must have been the Indian summer of this high latitude was gone and drizzling stormy weather had set in.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I shuddered as I stood and looked round me: it was an inclement day for outdoor exercise; not positively rainy, but darkened by a drizzling yellow fog; all under foot was still soaking wet with the floods of yesterday.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Ever since the day—about four years ago—that Miss Taylor and I met with him in Broadway Lane, when, because it began to drizzle, he darted away with so much gallantry, and borrowed two umbrellas for us from Farmer Mitchell's, I made up my mind on the subject.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Meteorologists define drizzle as water droplets smaller than 0.5 millimeters in diameter, or about one-five-hundredth of an inch.

(Drizzle at sub-zero temps recorded in Antarctica, National Science Foundation)

Then he remembered seeing similar grand ladies and gowns entering the London theatres while he stood and watched and the policemen shoved him back into the drizzle beyond the awning.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)