LEARN THE LINGO

Looking for words to describe those spring showers?

Duke of Spain: Cockney rhyming slang for rain, along with Andy Cain, Ache and Pain, Pleasure and Pain.

Dringey: Drizzle that manages to soak you right through.

Chwipio bwrw: Welsh word for whiplash rain.

Haar: Misty rain off the sea.

Raining cats and dogs: Chucking it down. Origins are obscure; maybe a corruption of Old English catadupe meaning waterfall.

Smirr: Scottish word for drizzle so gentle it’s almost a mist, smur south of the border.

Plothering: Heavy rain falling straight down.

Blood rain: Drops that are red with dust particles or algae.

Cow-quaker: Downpour so intense it shakes cattle. Specific to May, after the cows have gone out to pasture.

Moor-gallop: Wind-blown rain across high ground.

Sunshower: Rain falling from a bright sky. Some call it liquid sunshine; others compare it to the union of cunning animals like ‘fox’s wedding’.