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

Ill luck, my friend, never comes alone; it's an old saying, that it never rains but it pours; and so it's been with me.

From Stories of Comedy by Johnson, Rossiter

My dear, it never rains but it pours.

From Dracula by Stoker, Bram

In our generous vocabulary it never rains but it pours.

From Reading the Weather by Longstreth, Thomas Morris

The Spanish proverb, "it never rains but it pours" soon comes to pass, and every street is momentarily washed as clean as the most diligent housemaid could desire.

From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 12, No. 332, September 20, 1828 by Various

"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