Sentence:  And then came the water - not rain , but solid sheets that sluiced down like <WSD>water</WSD> slopping from a bucket . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  binary compound that occurs at room temperature as a clear colorless odorless tasteless liquid; freezes into ice below 0 degrees centigrade and boils above 100 degrees centigrade; widely used as a solvent