[Vocabulary] came pouring in

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Silverobama

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Aug 8, 2010
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Hi,


How to understand "came pouring in" in this sentence?


Messages of congratulation came pouring in.


Thanks a lot
 
Think of rain pouring down.
 
Lots arriving
 
Thanks a lot, can you tell me the grammar point here?
 
I don't know what a grammar point is, but maybe this will be helpful:

"They came."
"They came in what way?"
"They came pouring in."

"Pouring in" works like an adverb in this sentence.
 
Think of rain pouring down.
:up: And other words/expressions about too much paperwork arriving use the same idea: "up to my eyes in...", 'inundated with..."... Can't think of any more*, but I'm sure someone can. There are also closely related images that don't mean quite the same thing: "snowed under" [=having a lot of work to do], 'out of one's depth" [=having reached the limit of one's understanding - e.g. 'I read chapter one, but after that I quickly got out of my depth']

b

PS *Oh of course: 'Requests have been flooding in'. And extending that backwards: 'At first there was only a trickle of requests. But after a few weeks the trickle had turned into a flood.'
 
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