rain cats and dogs

• rain dogs and cats (rare)

Unknown, but see examples of early use in Citations.

• Audio (General Australian):

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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. (idiomatic, impersonal) 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

   • 1929, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “Marigold Entertains”, in Magic for Marigold, Toronto, Ont.: McClelland and Stewart, →OCLC, section 4, page 190:

     ["]Those weather-gaws aren't out for nothing. It'll rain cats and dogs to-morrow." Marigold wondered what weather-gaws were—and then forgot in thinking how interesting it would be in it really rained cats and dogs. Little silk-eared kittens everywhere by the basketful—loads of darling pudgy puppies.

• cats and dogs

• come down in stair rods

• rain dogs and cats