the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > precipitation or atmospheric moisture > rain > [noun] > place from which rain is said to fall (2)
In plural. Openings in the firmament through which rain was thought to pour. Chiefly in the windows of heaven (also the sky, the firmament).
plural. The ‘flood-gates’ of heaven, viewed as keeping back the rain (with reference to Genesis vii. 11, viii. 2, where Hebrew has 'rbt lattices…