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

"They reckon it never rains but it pours."

From We of the Never-Never by Gunn, Jeannie

"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 Curwood, James Oliver

"Well, well! they may well say it never rains but it pours," said the parson.

From A Son of Hagar A Romance of Our Time by Caine, Hall, Sir

Occasionally a comic, but sympathetic, servant brings in an armful—"heaped up and brimming over"—of rejected MSS., for, in the dramatic life, it never rains but it pours.

From Certain Personal Matters by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)

Sukey," she exclaimed to that worthy woman, "it never rains but it pours.

From The Time of Roses by Meade, L. T.