Where does the phrase `raining cats and dogs` come from? This phrase means that it is raining heavily and seems rather strange! The mind boggles. Can anyone enlighten me. Thankyou in anticipation.

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"Now, as to cats and dogs, we're going to rely a little on another writer, Christine Ammer, who has produced a marvelous book called, fortuitously, "It's Raining Cats and Dogs and Other Beastly Expressions" (Paragon, 1988). The first verified use of "raining cats and dogs" was in 1738 by Jonathan Swift (of "Gulliver's Travels" fame), though there were earlier versions of the phrase.

Why would cats and dogs be a metaphor for a heavy downpour? According to Ms. Ammer, it may have been because in Northern European myths the cat stood for rain and the dog for wind. Or perhaps the clamor of a full-tilt thunderstorm reminded someone of the sound of cats and dogs fighting.

"It's also possible that the phrase is a grisly reference to the fact that, as Ms. Ammer puts it, "In 17th century Britain, after a cloudburst the gutters would overflow with a filthy torrent that included dead animals...." That's a bit too grim for my taste, so I'm going to stick with the bit about cats and dogs symbolizing wind and rain. As any teacher will tell you, the first step in creative writing is always to edit your own reality."
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That last bit about animals washing into the streets is the speculative origin I'm most familiar with.


Mr(BAXTER!)Sensitive

There's another site with a few additional thoughts on the subject here.

Well, I've heard two things..

One is that when it rained in Europe that all the dead cats and dogs would get washed down the streets when they flooded...

The other is that when houses had thatched roofs the animals would go up there to get warm(because all the heat from the stove would rise up) and when it rained the thatching/beams would be slippery or the animals would get wet and come down (mostly falling off the roof?)

I tend to believe the first one- does that make me twisted?