A biweekly feature about idioms.
When it’s raining a lot, it’ “raining cats and dogs.” The etymology of the phrase is up for grabs and there are several variants, including one with pitchforks, but, in truth it rarely comes up in modern English. The only non-ESL speaker I’ve ever heard use it was my aging grandmother as a child. (Me, not her.)
E.g. Wow, it’s raining cats and dogs out there. I swear I saw a rat with a life vest.
E.g. If it keeps raining cats and dogs like this, we’ll have to get a raft. You know, for the cats. And for the dogs. And for Barry, because he can’t swim.
E.g. “Is it bad?” “Man, it’s raining tigers and dire wolves out there!” “What are you talking about?” “You know, like ‘cats and dogs,’ but wilder.” “That’s not a real expression. The tigers and dire wolves, I mean.” “C’mon, bruh. I’m trying.”
Interestingly, similar idioms exists in languages around the globe. It just goes to show you that no matter where you go, everyone would rather talk about the weather than bring up the time you drank too much at Uncle Sally’s third wedding and made that toast with all the swears.
If you want a more modern expression for the same phenomenon, try “it’s raining buckets,” “it’s really coming down out there,” or “sorry, I was going through a really rough spot and shouldn’t have pre-gamed.”