teem

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To be full of a large number of people, animals, or things.

   The pond teems with fish in the summer.

2. 2
   verb

   To rain very heavily.

   We stayed indoors because it was teeming with rain all day.

Simplified etymology

Teem has two distinct histories. The Old English verb meaning “be full of” is related to team, whose earliest sense concerned bearing offspring. Teem in expressions such as teeming with rain is a different Middle English word from Old Norse tómr, “empty”; it originally meant “drain liquid from” before developing the image of rain pouring down.

From Middle English temen (“to bear, to support”), from Anglian Old English tēman (“to give birth”) (West Saxon Old English tīeman), from Proto-West Germanic *taumijan (“to bridle”), from Proto-Germanic *taumijaną, from *taumaz ("bridle", continued in Modern English as team).

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External links

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