I’ve heard the term gully-washer way up here in Wisconsin. It’s not used often, but I’ve heard of it.
I tend to use the less colloquial term of “flash-flood” when it’s pouring out. Maybe I’ll use “it’s raining cats and dogs” or “it’s a real soaker.” I guess I tend to focus more on the rain as it’s coming down than what happens to it once it’s hit the ground.
How much is that in real money?
toad choker 'round here
Is it from the same neck-of-the-woods as “cattywampus”?
Upper 40’s here, and I’ve never heard the term before now.
OTOH, I grew up in So. California, where our only word for rain is “weird wet stuff that sometimes falls from the sky during winter.”
I’m 44, and I’d never heard the phrase “gully washer” until I read this thread. I’m American, from New Jersey and Ohio.
“Gully Washer” is rather common, IME, and I am surprised so many haven’t heard of it.
“Frog Strangler” and “Frog Choker” are a bit more uncommon, but I hear them from time to time.
“Turd floater” seems to be dropping out of favor, I suspect the decline in the use of outhouses–or the popularity of indoor plumbing–is, at least partly, to blame (although gnoitall did mention “log lifter”, which I guess is the same thing).
I grew up in Tennessee, but I did spend over 30 years in Texas.
I’m definitely over 40 and I don’t recall ever encountering it before this thread.
Born and raised in Texas; heard it all my life but have had to explain it to a lot of folks.
I’ve heard of it, and have had the impression that it was more than just hard rain: a flash flood.
That’s a common term, not an obscure term to me.
I used that word in a story I wrote for children. From context, they would have understood what it meant even if they hadn’t heard the term before.
What is that cow doing to that flat rock?