Nine-year-old Evie calls from Texas to ask about the origin of the phrase raining cats and dogs. This idiom alludes to the cacophonous nature of a heavy downpour. Around the world, expressions about torrential rain also connote the idea of a noisy...
What do you call a fierce rainfall? There are lots of vivid terms in this country besides “it’s raining cats and dogs.” Some Americans say “It’s raining pitchforks and hoe handles,” or “raining pitchforks and bullfrogs.” Or they might call a heavy...
narco-sub n.— «Packed with cocaine and grimly christened “coffins,” sleek jungle-built submarines are steaming their way north from Colombia through Pacific waters to deliver tonnes of illegal drugs headed for the U.S. market.…It estimates that...
