drizzle

Meanings

Verb

• To rain lightly.
• To shed slowly in minute drops or particles.
• To pour slowly and evenly, especially oil or honey in cooking.
• To cover by pouring in this manner.
• To urinate.
• To carry out parfilage, the process of unravelling.

Noun

• Light rain.
• Very small, numerous, and uniformly dispersed water drops, mist, or sprinkle. Unlike fog droplets, drizzle falls to the ground.
• Water.
• A cake onto which icing, honey or syrup has been drizzled in an artistic manner.

Origin

• 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.