Het regent pijpenstelen
Meaning: It is raining very heavily.
Language: Dutch
Literally: It's raining pipe stems
Category: Nature
Origin: Heavy straight rods of rain reminded the Dutch of the long clay stems of old smoking pipes hammering down.
Equivalents in other languages
- English: It's raining cats and dogs
- French: Il pleut comme vache qui pisse — literally: It rains like a cow that pisses
- French: Tomber des hallebardes — literally: To rain halberds
More idioms — Nature
- 胸有成竹 (xiōng yǒu chéng zhú) — To have a well-formed plan ready before you begin.
- Τρώω κουτόχορτο — To be gullible and easily fooled.
- Découvrir le pot aux roses — To uncover a hidden secret.
- Once in a blue moon — Very rarely.
- To break the ice — To ease the initial tension in a social situation.
- To give a wide berth — To keep well away from someone or something.
More Dutch idioms
- Iets met de Franse slag doen — To do it carelessly and half-heartedly.
- De kat uit de boom kijken — To wait cautiously before committing.
- Iets voor zoete koek aannemen — To swallow a story uncritically.
- Met de gebakken peren zitten — To be stuck with the unpleasant aftermath.
- De koe bij de horens vatten — To tackle a problem head-on.
- Een appeltje voor de dorst — Savings put by for hard times.
From our tongue twisters
- Liesje leerde Lotje lopen langs de lange Lindelaan. — Eight consecutive l-words, with the vowel behind the l changing every time.
- De kat krabt de krullen van de trap. — A 'kr' cluster drill — Dutch consonant pileups that beginners approach with dread.
- Als vliegen achter vliegen vliegen, vliegen vliegen vliegen achterna. — The same noun/verb homograph trap as the German version — vliegen does triple duty.