it never rains but it pours

Idioms  

1. When something occurs it often does so to excess. For example, First Aunt Sue said she and Uncle Harry were coming for the weekend and then my sister and her children said they were coming too—it never rains but it pours. This expression may have come from either a book by Queen Anne's physician, John Arbuthnot, or an article by Jonathan Swift, both entitled It Cannot Rain But It Pours and both published in 1726.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

it never rains but it pours

"There's a good deal of truth in the old saying that it never rains but it pours," replied Rod.

From The Gold Hunters A Story of Life and Adventure in the Hudson Bay Wilds by James Oliver Curwood

In fine weather my slumbers at night are uninterrupted, but when it rains—and in Cuba it never rains but it pours in bucketfuls—my rest is at intervals sorely disturbed.

From The Pearl of the Antilles, or An Artist in Cuba by Walter Goodman

Mr. Bowen, you'll think it never rains but it pours.

From Medoline Selwyn's Work by Hattie E. Colter

The fact is, I have had a regular visitation from would-be poets this afternoon, and, as it never rains but it pours, I had a terrible feeling that it was another one.

From Molly Brown's Post-Graduate Days by Nell Speed

"I thought when Web's place burned we'd had fire enough to last for one spell, but it never rains but it pours."

From Cap'n Eri by Joseph Crosby Lincoln

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