| 释义 |
cat and dog, cat-and-dog
1. Referring to the proverbial enmity between the two animals: attrib. Full of strife; inharmonious; quarrelsome.
1579Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 27 He..shall see them agree like Dogges and Cattes. a1745Swift Phyllis (D.) They keep at Staines the old Blue Boar, Are cat and dog, and rogue and whore. 1821Scott Kenilw. ii, Married he was..and a cat-and-dog life she led with Tony. 1822in Cobbett Rur. Rides (1885) I. 96 The fast-sinking Old Times newspaper, its cat-and-dog opponent the New Times. 1867Trollope Chron. Barset I. xliii. 384 They..were gracious..and abstained from all cat-and-dog absurdities.
2. to rain cats and dogs: to rain very heavily. Also attrib., raining heavily.
[a1652R. Brome City Wit (1653) iv. i, It shall raine..Dogs and Polecats.] 1738Swift Polite Conv. ii. (D.), I know Sir John will go, though he was sure it would rain cats and dogs. 1819Shelley Let. to Peacock 25 Feb., It began raining cats and dogs. 1849Thackeray in Scribner's Mag. I. 551/1 Pouring with rain..and the most dismal..cat and dog day. 1949A. Wilson Wrong Set 188 It always ‘rained cats and dogs’.
3. A game played with a piece of wood called a cat (cf. cat n.1 10 a.) and a club called a dog.
1808in Jamieson. 1884Public Opinion 5 Sept. 301/2 Cat and dog is in one sense a classical game. Bunyan tells us that he was playing at it.
Hence cat-and-doggish a.
1878Cornh. Mag. XXXVIII. 648 To live under the same roof, a cat-and-doggish life. |