Raining Cats and DogsRaining Cats and Dogs : PhrasesMeaning: A very hard rain. Example: We decided to cancel our trip, it was raining cats and dogs that day. Origin: When the bubonic plague was rampant in London, humans where apparently not the only victims of the plague. Cats and dogs were also afflicted, many died in the streets. After a particularly hard rain, street gutters could be awash in the bodies of cats and dogs. Another theory suggests that thunder and lightning represent a cat and dog fight. Yet another traces the origin of the phrase to ideas in ancient mythology that cats could influence the weather, and that dogs were a symbol of the wind. This phrase goes back many hundreds of years to the Dark Ages. The cat was thought by sailors to have a lot to do with storms. Witches that were believed to ride in the storms were often pictured as black cats. Dogs and wolves were symbols of winds and the Norse storm god Odin was frequently shown surrounded by dogs and wolves. In the phrase raining cats and dogs, cats symbolize the rain and dogs represent the wind of the storm. | ||
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