rain cats and dogs

English

Alternative forms

• rain dogs and cats (rare)

Etymology

Unknown, but see Etymology in Citations.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (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) To rain very heavily.

   Synonyms: bucket, bucket down, chuck it down, rain buckets, rain pitchforks, pelt, (vulgar) piss down, (vulgar) piss it down, pour, stream, teem

Translations

to rain very heavily

• Arabic: أَمْطَرَ بِغَزَارَة (ʾamṭara bi-ḡazāra)
• Breton: Gwelet a ran da gazh er jardin
• Catalan: ploure a bots i barrals (ca)
• Chinese:

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

• Czech: lít jako z konve (cs), padat trakaře
• Dutch: pijpenstelen regenen, regenen dat het giet
• 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)
• Galician: arroiar, diluviar, chover a chuzos, chover a cachón (gl), chover a Deus dar auga
• Georgian: კოკისპირული წვიმა (ḳoḳisṗiruli c̣vima)
• German: Bindfäden regnen (de), in Strömen regnen (de), aus allen Kannen gießen, aus allen Kannen schütten, es schüttet wie aus Eimern
• Greek: βρέχει με το τουλούμι (vréchei me to touloúmi)
• Hungarian: zuhog, mintha dézsából öntenék
• Icelandic: vera mígandi rigning, rigna eldi og brennisteini
• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} pluver torrentialmente
• Irish: sceana gréasaí a chur
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• 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 (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: a ploua cu găleata, plouă 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)
• Swedish: ösregna (sv), spöregna (sv), stå som spön i backen (sv)
• Turkish: bardaktan boşalırcasına yağmak
• Vietnamese: (trời) mưa xối xả, (trời) mưa như trút
• Welsh: bwrw hen wragedd â ffyn (cy)

Anagrams

• rain dogs and cats