why do we say "it's pouring cats and dogs" when it rains very heavily? what is the origin?
78841
I don't know.  But when I used to say it to one person, she always replied, "Don't step in any poodles."
143492
to my knowledge, it means mist or dew
594471
it means collectin rain water in big tanks and using it 4 future purpose.it is mainly done in water scarity places.in some places that has heavy rain collects it and use it in whole summer season.it is used to water plants ad 4 bathing and washing.these water can also be used as drinking water after purifying  it.special methods such as constructing rain tanks,using filters are used 4 that.
94508
Well the leading expert on word and phrase orgins, says it probably really means to cruelly swing a cat by the tail.\n\n>>\n There are two theories about "not enough room to swing a cat," neither of them very cheerful. One is that the phrase refers to the "cat o'nine tails," a nine-thonged whip used in the days of square-rigged ships to discipline unruly sailors. This "cat" got its name from the fact that the welts it left on a sailor's back looked like enormous cat scratches. Most such whippings took place on the open deck, both as an example to the rest of the crew and because in the cramped quarters belowdecks there was "not enough room to swing a cat."\n\nThe other, less cat-friendly theory is that the phrase refers to literally swinging a cat around by its tail. This version seems to have quite a bit more evidence in its favor, the phrase having come into use in the mid-17th century and being used with clear reference to actual cats ever since, including in Charles Dickens' "David Copperfield." \n>>\n\nMark Twain uses the phrase in the kitty sense in his wonderful book "Roughing It":\n\n>>\nThe floor room unoccupied was not extensive. \nOne might swing a cat in it, perhaps, but not a long cat.\n>>\n\nAccording to the Oxford English Dictionary:\n>>\n1771 SMOLLETT Humph. Cl. II. 8 June, At London, I am pent up in frowzy lodgings, where there is not room enough to swing a cat.\n\n1665 Medela Pestil. 57 They had not space enough (according to the vulgar saying) to swing a Cat in.\n\n1850 DICKENS David Copperfield xxxv, Mrs. Crupp had indignantly assured him that there wasn't room to swing a cat there; but, as Mr. Dick just observed to me,..‘You know, Trotwood, I don't want to swing a cat. I never do swing a cat.’\n>>
836667
Here goes- take your pick:\n\n1.It comes from mythology. Witches, who often took the form of their familiars - cats, are supposed to have ridden the wind. Dogs and wolves were attendants to Odin, the god of storms and sailors associated them with rain. Well, some evidence would be nice. There doesn't appear to be any to support this notion.\n\n\n2.Cats and dogs were supposed to be washed from roofs during heavy weather. This is a widely repeated tale. It got a lease of life with the message "Life in the 1500s", which began circulating on the Internet in 1999. Here's the relevant part of that:\n\nI'll describe their houses a little. You've heard of thatch roofs, well that's all they were. Thick straw, piled high, with no wood underneath. They were the only place for the little animals to get warm. So all the pets; dogs, cats and other small animals, mice, rats, bugs, all lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery so sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Thus the saying, "it's raining cats and dogs."\n\nThis is nonsense of course. It hardly needs debunking, but, lest there be any doubt... \n\nDogs lived in thatched roofs? No, of course they didn't. Even accepting that mad idea, for them to have slipped off when it rained they would have needed to be on the outside - hardly the place an animal would head for to shelter from bad weather.\n\n\n3.The phrase is supposed to have originated in England in the 17th century when city streets were filthy and heavy rain would occasionally carry along dead animals. \n\nThe idea that seeing dead cats and dogs floating by in storms would cause people to coin this phrase is just about believable. People may not have actually thought the animals had come from the sky, but might have made up the phrase to suit the occasion. \n\n\n4.Another suggestion is that it comes from a version of the French word, catadoupe, meaning waterfall. \n\nWell, again. No evidence. If the phrase were 'raining cats' or if there also existed a French word, dogadoupe we might be going somewhere with this one. As there isn't let's pass this by.
919916
Just a silly way to answer.\n\nIf it is Saturday, it is Saturday, but if it rains, then it is a rainy day.
879687
I don't know all of them, but the first one refers to someone putting their dog (named Jip) in the bathtub and running water in the hopes that he'll pee inside and they won't have to walk him on the icy streets. \n\nAndover is a school, I think (also a town in Massachusets with a big school- I think it's MIT)\n\nNot worth two shakes of a mare's tail-- not worth much, but I don't know the origin of the phrase. \n\nI hope someone else knows the rest.  Good Luck!!
493523
It's latin. It means "don't whistle and drink at the same time".
430907
That's the way english is...or for that matter any other language. The literal meaning can be vastly different from the actual meaning which must be inferred from the context. Therefore, if I say I'm gonna water the plants....then, water here is used as a verb whose meaning has evolved out of common usage. "building" has a similar evolution from its original meaning.\n\nI guess you've posted this question just for the sake of posting and fun...well, so am I, answering it to make my first post :)
733479
Even though "showers" are indeed rain, there's a subtle but important distinction between the two as far as weather forecasts go. \nWhen we call for "Rain" (as in, "Rain at Times", "a rainy day", "Occasional rain") is a more widespread event. Most, if not all, of the area will see rain and it'll last for a while. \n\n"Showers" are more scattered. That usually means that not everyone will be getting wet at the same time. It could be raining in one place and another, but dry in other regions. Plus, showers tend to be much shorter in duration -- anywhere from a minute to an hour.
359391
Ahm of the unmentioned categoray, "D", tha' one called "Whit Are Ye Mollachin Aboot?"  In honor of ma Scottish ancest'ray and the peskay moles a'bothren ma golf bawls, ahm makin this categoray, by-the-way.\n  \nBas'cally: Ah's won'dren round tha' loch and spewin' bawls left o' right, no aim en mind, a true n auld nae worth a docken.  "Awa ye go!", ye say, boot aye tells tha' truth, ah doo.  Doon ye think ahm aff?   Eh, well, piss on ye.
238296
the REAL reason is that in London in the 1800's stray cats would wander the rooftops of the city, looking for rats, occaisonally a dog would find its way up there. if it started to rain hard sometimes a dog or cat would get caught in a gutter and would float right out onto the street. whenever it would rain hard enough for this to happen, the londoners would say that it was "raining cats and dogs."
1125965
it must be raining cats n dogs coz im sure i just stepped in a pooodLe !!!!\n\n\n\nXX
263397
Because the rain traps a lot of the dirt in the air, and the air is cleaner.  ^_^  I love that smell too.  Plus everything's cleaner all around and the scents of nature are stirred up.
650260
We hear the term gee used in the city as well as the country today, in the form gee-gee, a hypochoristic (baby talk) term for a horse.  Now that we have discussed the word gee, it is probably not difficult to see whence gee-gee came.  The word used to direct a horse simply came to apply to the horse. Children in the early 19th century saw horses on a daily basis, in many cases. The youngest children, just learning to speak, would hear men shouting "Gee!" to their horses, and so they, very logically for children, applied that word to the animal. It became gee-gee after the pattern of other children's words for animals, such as bow-wow for dog and kitty cat for cat, though it was still found as gee alone, as well. The earliest record of the gee-gee usage is 1869, and this one is from 1886: "To carry two heavy boys... on his back, pretending that he was a gee-gee." It was certainly being used as early as the first part of the 19th century, however; it usually takes some time for slang or children's words to find their way into written form.\n\nSo when a farmer calls haw and gee to his horses, he is etymologically saying hey and go!
930029
It's a huge storm.  Also a play by Shakespeare.  The word also refers to external electromagnetic radiation from data processing equipment and the security measures used to prevent them.  I hope this helps.
516442
it means amount of rainfall in mm or cm or inches.