rain cats and dogs

English

Alternative forms

• rain dogs and cats (rare)

Etymology

Unknown, but see examples of early use in Citations.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

rain cats and dogs (third-person singular simple present rains cats and dogs, present participle raining cats and dogs, simple past and past participle rained cats and dogs)

1. (idiomatic, impersonal) To rain very heavily.

   Synonyms: bucket, bucket down, chuck it down, come down cats and dogs, rain buckets, rain pitchforks, pelt, (vulgar) piss down, (vulgar) piss it down, pour, pour cats and dogs, storm cats and dogs, stream, teem, tip it down

   • 1929, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “Marigold Entertains”, in Magic for Marigold, Toronto, Ont.: McClelland and Stewart, →OCLC, section 4, page 190:

     ["]Those weather-gaws aren't out for nothing. It'll rain cats and dogs to-morrow." Marigold wondered what weather-gaws were—and then forgot in thinking how interesting it would be in it really rained cats and dogs. Little silk-eared kittens everywhere by the basketful—loads of darling pudgy puppies.

Derived terms

• cats and dogs

Translations

to rain very heavily

• Arabic: أَمْطَرَ بِغَزَارَة (ʔamṭara bi-ḡazāra)
• Azerbaijani: tut ucundan, göyə çıx
• Breton: Gwelet a ran da gazh er jardin
• Bulgarian: вали́ като из ведро́ (valí kato iz vedró)
• Catalan: ploure a bots i barrals (ca)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 落狗屎 (yue) (lok⁶ gau² si²)

  Hokkien: 㴙㴙落 (zh-min-nan) (tsa̍p-tsa̍p-lo̍h)

  Mandarin: 暴雨如注 (zh), 傾盆大雨 / 倾盆大雨 (zh) (qīngpéndàyǔ)

• Czech: lít jako z konve (cs), padat trakaře
• Dutch: pijpenstelen regenen (nl), regenen dat het giet
• Esperanto: pluvegi
• Finnish: sataa kaatamalla, sataa äkäisiä ämmiä äkeet selässä, sataa kuin saavista kaataen
• French: pleuvoir des cordes (fr), pleuvoir à verse (fr), pleuvoir des hallebardes (fr), pleuvoir comme vache qui pisse (fr), (Québec) pleuvoir à boire debout (fr), (Belgium) dracher (fr), pleuvoir à seaux (fr)
• Galician: arroiar, diluviar, chover a chuzos, chover a cachón (gl), chover a Deus dar auga, chover a caldeiros (gl)
• Georgian: კოკისპირული წვიმა (ḳoḳisṗiruli c̣vima)
• German: Bindfäden regnen (de), in Strömen regnen (de)
• Greek: βρέχει με το τουλούμι (vréchei me to touloúmi), ρίχνει καρεκλοπόδαρα (ríchnei kareklopódara), ρίχνει καντάρια (ríchnei kantária)
• Hungarian: zuhog, mintha dézsából öntenék (hu)
• Icelandic: vera mígandi rigning, rigna eldi og brennisteini
• Interlingua: pluver torrentialmente
• Irish: sceana gréasaí a chur
• Italian: piovere a catinelle, diluviare (it), scrosciare (it), piovere come Dio la manda
• Japanese: 土砂降りになる (どしゃぶりになる, doshaburi ni naru)
• Korean: 비가 억수같이 쏟아진다 (bi-ga eoksu-gachi ssodajinda)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: høljeregne (no), høljregne (no), regne sinte kjerringer (literally “rain mad hags”)

  Nynorsk: høljeregne, ausregne

• Polish: lać jak z cebra (pl)
• Portuguese: o céu vir abaixo, chover a cântaros (pt) (Portugal), chover a potes (Portugal), cair um toró (Brazil), chover canivetes (Brazil)
• Romanian: ploua cu găleata
• Russian: лить как из ведра́ (litʹ kak iz vedrá)
• Slovak: liať ako z krhly
• Spanish: llover a cántaros (es), llover a mares (es), caer chuzos de punta (es)
• Swedish: ösregna (sv), spöregna (sv), stå som spön i backen (sv)
• Turkish: bardaktan boşalırcasına yağmak, şakır şakır yağmur
• Ukrainian: ллє як з відра (llje jak z vidra)
• Vietnamese: (trời) mưa xối xả, (trời) mưa như trút
• Welsh: bwrw hen wragedd â ffyn (cy)

See also

• come down in stair rods

Anagrams

• rain dogs and cats