Idiom
Raining cats and dogs
If it is raining cats and dogs, it is raining very heavily.
How people use it
People use it mostly in the forms it's raining cats and dogs and it rained cats and dogs. It is informal and a little old-fashioned or playful, and English learners often enjoy it because the picture is so odd. Native speakers today may more often say pouring, or bucketing down in British English. It only describes heavy rain, not snow or wind. You can also use rain cats and dogs as a verb phrase.
Also said: rain cats and dogs.
Examples
- It was raining cats and dogs, so we moved the birthday party into the garage.
- Leo forgot his umbrella on the one day it rained cats and dogs.
- The game was delayed because it started raining cats and dogs in the third inning.
Where it comes from
No one knows for sure. A popular story says cats and dogs slept in thatched roofs and slid off during storms, but there is no evidence for it. Other guesses point to old myths or to animals washed through city streets in floods. Writers used versions of the phrase in the 1600s, and Jonathan Swift used rain cats and dogs in a 1738 book of mock polite conversations.
Check yourself
1. If your friend says it's raining cats and dogs, what should you bring?
Answer: An umbrella. Raining cats and dogs means raining very hard.
2. Which statement about the origin is true?
Answer: No one knows for sure where it comes from. The thatched roof story has no evidence, and the true origin is unknown.
Word game fan? See every word hiding in RAINING.