Question

The rain poured down on the cat. What does poured mean?

Answer 1

Here "poured" is the past tense of the verb "pour." In this sentence it means that rain fell heavily — i.e., it was raining very hard. "Poured down" is a common way to say there was a heavy, continuous downpour.

Examples:
- It poured (down) all afternoon. = It rained very hard all afternoon.
- Synonyms: rained heavily, came down in buckets/sheets, poured rain.