Anonymous  +  556276 Mon, 18 Aug 08 09:15 PM Hi, It's raining cats and dogs. It's raining heavily. It's raining hard. It's pouring. Do the four sentences mean the same? If not, what is their different meanings? Thank you for your help. Anonymous

	Cool Breeze  +  556295 Mon, 18 Aug 08 10:07 PM  They all mean pretty much the same. CB Cool Breeze Joined on Fri, Apr 7 2006 Senior Member 3,929 "I hope you'll all live to be 150 years old - and the last voice you hear is mine!" Frank Sinatra on stage in Oslo, Norway, 28 September 1991

	Philip  +  556326 Tue, 19 Aug 08 01:10 AM If it's raining cats and dogs, just don't step in a poodle. Philip Joined on Thu, Jun 23 2005 Veteran Member 8,614 At reise er at leve! - H. C. Andersen

	Tanit  +  556457 Tue, 19 Aug 08 09:52 AM Yoong Liat “ Why cats and dogs? I know it should be so, but how did it originate? I'm curious. ” Hi, I'm quoting only a part of a larger text that you can find here. One supposed origin is that the phrase derives from mythology. Dogs and wolves were attendants to Odin, the god of storms, and sailors associated them with rain. Witches, who often took the form of their familiars - cats, are supposed to have ridden the wind. Well, some evidence would be nice. There doesn't appear to be any to support this notion. It has also been suggested that cats and dogs were washed from roofs during heavy weather. This is a widely repeated tale. It got a new lease of life with the e-mail message "Life in the 1500s", which began circulating on the Internet in 1999 ... This is nonsense of course ... Another suggestion is that 'raining cats and dogs' comes from a version of the French word 'catadoupe', meaning waterfall. Again, no evidence. If the phrase were just 'raining cats', or even 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. ... The much more probable source of 'raining cats and dogs' is the prosaic fact that, in the filthy streets of 17th/18th century England, heavy rain would occasionally carry along dead animals and other debris. The animals didn't fall from the sky, but the sight of dead cats and dogs floating by in storms could well have caused the coining of this colourful phrase. Jonathan Swift described such an event in his satirical poem 'A Description of a City Shower', ...” As for the original post, I'd add "It's pouring down". Tanit Joined on Mon, Jul 31 2006 Senior Member 3,016 There is no greater pain than to remember a happy time when one is in misery. (Dante)