English · Idiom Attested

rain cats and dogs

In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Rain heavily.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Mưa lớn

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

An umbrella is useful in a mild rain, but when it rains cats and dogs an umbrella is of little help.

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).

Topics: Cats Dogs Rain & storms

Common questions

What does “rain cats and dogs” mean?

Rain heavily.

Is “rain cats and dogs” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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