By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
A few days ago, we delved into the curious origins and meaning of the phrase ‘curiosity killed the cat’. That got us thinking about another popular feline phrase, ‘it’s raining cats and dogs’. We all know the rough meaning of the phrase: namely, if it’s raining cats and dogs, it’s raining heavily, the heavens have opened, it’s torrential out there, and so on.