also cloudburst, "violent downpour of much rain over a small area," 1817, American English, from cloud (n.) + burst (n.). It parallels German Wolkenbruch.
Entries linking to cloud-burst
cloud n.
Old English clud "mass of rock, hill," related to clod.
The modern sense "rain-cloud, mass of evaporated water visible and suspended in the sky" is a metaphoric extension that begins to appear c. 1300 in southern texts, based on similarity of cumulus clouds and rock masses. The usual Old English word for "cloud" was weolcan (see welkin). In Middle English, skie also originally meant "cloud." The last entry for cloud in the original rock mass sense in Middle English Compendium is from c. 1475.
The four fundamental types of cloud classification (cirrus, cumulus, stratus, nimbus) were proposed by British amateur meteorologist Luke Howard (1772-1864) in 1802.
Meaning "cloud-like mass of smoke or dust" is from late 14c. Figuratively, as something that obscures, darkens, threatens, or casts a shadow, from c. 1300; hence under a cloud (c. 1500). In the clouds "removed from earthly things; obscure, fanciful, unreal" is from 1640s. Cloud-compeller translates (poetically) Greek nephelegereta, a Homeric epithet of Zeus.
burst n.
1610s, "act of bursting, a violent rending; a sudden issuing forth," from burst (v.). The meaning "a spurt, an outburst" (of activity, etc.) is from 1862. Jane Austen, Coleridge, Browning use it in a sense of "a sudden opening to sight or view." The earlier noun berst (early Middle English) meant "damage, injury, harm."