teem
verb/tiːm/
/tiːm/
[intransitive] (usually be teeming)
Verb Forms
Phrasal Verbs| present simple I / you / we / they teem | /tiːm/ /tiːm/ |
| he / she / it teems | /tiːmz/ /tiːmz/ |
| past simple teemed | /tiːmd/ /tiːmd/ |
| past participle teemed | /tiːmd/ /tiːmd/ |
| -ing form teeming | /ˈtiːmɪŋ/ /ˈtiːmɪŋ/ |
- (of rain) to fall heavily synonym pour
- The rain was teeming down.
- It was teeming with rain.
Word Originverb Middle English: from Old Norse tœma ‘to empty’, from tómr ‘empty’. The original sense was ‘to empty’, specifically ‘to drain liquid from, pour liquid out’; the current sense (originally dialect) dates from the early 19th cent. teem with something. Old English tēman, tīeman, of Germanic origin; related to team. The original senses included ‘give birth to’, also ‘be or become pregnant’, giving rise to ‘be full of’ in the late 16th cent.
Check pronunciation:
teem