rain cats and dogs

rain cats and dogs

English

Alternative forms

• rain dogs and cats (rare)

Etymology

Unknown, but see examples of early use 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. (impersonal, idiomatic) 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

   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:rain cats and dogs.

Derived terms

• cats and dogs

Translations

to rain very heavily

Arabic: أَمْطَرَ بِغَزَارَة‎ (ʾamṭara bi-ḡazāra) Azerbaijani: tut ucundan, göyə çıx Breton: Gwelet a ran da gazh er jardin Catalan: ploure a bots i barrals (ca) Chinese: Cantonese: 落狗屎 (yue) (lok6 gau2 si2) Mandarin: 傾盆大雨／倾盆大雨 (zh) (qīngpéndàyǔ), 暴雨如注 (zh) (bàoyǔrúzhù) Min Nan: 㴙㴙落 (zh-min-nan) (tsa̍p-tsa̍p-lo̍h) Czech: lít jako z konve (cs), padat trakaře Dutch: pijpenstelen regenen (nl), 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), pleuvoir à seaux (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), ρίχνει καρεκλοπόδαρα (ríchnei kareklopódara), ρίχνει καντάρια (ríchnei kantária) Hungarian: zuhog, mintha dézsából öntenék 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) Swedish: ösregna (sv), spöregna (sv), stå som spön i backen (sv) Turkish: bardaktan boşalırcasına yağmak, şakır şakır yağmur 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