piovere

From Vulgar Latin *plovere, from Classical Latin pluere.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpjɔ.ve.re/

• Audio

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• Rhymes: -ɔvere
• Hyphenation: piò‧ve‧re

piòvere (first-person singular present piòvo, first-person singular past historic piòvvi, past participle piovùto, auxiliary (impersonal or intransitive) èssere or (impersonal or transitive) avére)

1. (intransitive, impersonal) to rain [auxiliary avere or essere]
2. (intransitive, impersonal, by extension) to drip [auxiliary avere or essere]
3. (intransitive) to fall (from the sky) (of rainwater) [auxiliary essere]

   piovono le gocce via via più grandi

   bigger and bigger (rain)drops are falling

4. (intransitive, informal, figurative, by extension) to fall from above, to rain down [auxiliary essere]

   piovono sassi

   stones are raining down

5. (intransitive, informal, figurative, by extension) to come in large quantities [auxiliary essere]

   piovono insulti da ogni parte

   insults are flying in from all angles

   (literally, “insults are coming in large quantities from everywhere”)

6. (transitive, literary) to (cause to) rain, to rain down [auxiliary avere]
   • Padre e Signor, s'al popol tuo piovesti / Già le dolci rugiade entro al deserto

     Father and Lord, if you rained upon your people / already the sweet dews within the desert

     (Torquato Tasso, La Gerusalemme Liberata, Canto XIII)

• The non-third-person forms are rare, but as shown in the examples above, they do exist.

• pioggia
• piovigginare
• piovoso
• ripiovere
• spiovere

• vipereo