It's raining cats and dogs
Meaning: It's raining extremely heavily.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Category: Animals
Origin: Popularized by Jonathan Swift (1738), but a near-identical form appears earlier in Richard Brome's play 'City Wit' (c. 1637), so Swift did not coin it. True origin uncertain.
Equivalents in other languages
- Dutch: Het regent pijpenstelen — literally: It's raining pipe stems
- 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 — Animals
- To have butterflies in your stomach — To feel nervous excitement.
- القرد بعين أمه غزال (al-qird bi-ʿayn ummihi ghazāl) — Parents see their children as beautiful no matter what.
- اللي ما يعرف الصقر يشويه (illi ma yaʿrif al-ṣaqr yishwīh) — Failing to recognize something valuable and destroying it.
- Matar a cobra e mostrar o pau — To prove you actually did what you claim.
- Noyer le poisson — To confuse the issue deliberately; to dodge a question.
- Appeler un chat un chat — To call things by their proper name; to speak bluntly.
More English idioms
- Bob's your uncle — And there you have it; simple as that.
- take the biscuit — to be the most outrageous or remarkable thing; to win or excel.
- beat around the bush — to avoid addressing the main point; to speak indirectly.
- give someone the cold shoulder — to deliberately treat someone with indifference or ignore them.
- let the cat out of the bag — to reveal a secret inadvertently.
- pull your punches — to hold back; to be less forceful than you could be.
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