Dictionary

rainy day en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (idiomatic) A difficult period of need, in reference to a time when money will be needed.
   • Their food is principally composed of nuts, but they also eat corn and grain, acorns and beech-nuts, whilst (possibly as a corrective to so much vegetable food) they will at times feed upon beetles, caterpillars, and other insects and their larvæ. The manner in which they obtain the kernel of the nut is very interesting. When a nut has been obtained, it is placed in a crevice of the bark of a tree, or in a crack or slit of a paling or gate-post, and by continuous knockings with its hard bill, by dint of perseverance the most stubborn shell is at length broken and the contents extracted. They, like squirrels, often lay up a stock of nuts for a possible "rainy day;" and if nuts be placed in suitable positions near their haunts, Nuthatches will often find them out, break the shells, and eat them. It is during this operation that they make the peculiar rapping noise that has so often attracted attention. The stroke of their bills against the hard shell of the nut can be heard upwards of two hundred yards away. 1901, W. Swaysland, “The Nuthatch”, in Familiar Wild Birds (Third Series, With Coloured Plates), Cassell and Company, pages 30-31:
   • I've kept some money in the bank for a rainy day.
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see rainy, day.
   • Sometimes on a rainy day I sit around and weed the losers out of my address book. 1997, George Carlin, Brain Droppings, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 94:
   • Rainy days and Mondays always get me down.
   • My rainy-day tour in April during the first lockdown was, in fact, a homage to Sir John Betjeman - the poet and railway campaigner whose statue can be found on the upper concourse of St Pancras station. 2021 January 13, Christian Wolmar, “Read all about London's Cathedrals of Steam”, in RAIL, issue 922, page 62:

Forms

Deriveds

save for a rainy day · save something for a rainy day

Translations (26)

tr zor gün (difficult period of need) · fr période de vaches maigres (difficult period of need) · ga lá báistí (literal usage) · de Regentag (literal usage) · tr yağmurlu gün (literal usage) · ro vremuri grele (difficult period of need) · ga cos thinn (difficult period of need) · cmn 雨天 (literal usage) · ro vremuri dificile (difficult period of need) · es cuando vienen mal dadas (difficult period of need) · de schlechte Zeiten (difficult period of need) · ru нена́стный день (literal usage) · fi paha päivä (but see pahan päivän varalle) (difficult period of need) · ru чёрный день (difficult period of need) · fr jour difficile (difficult period of need) · ko 비오는 날 (literal usage) · es vacas flacas (difficult period of need) · lt juoda diena (difficult period of need) · pl czarna godzina (difficult period of need) · ru дождли́вый день (literal usage) · fi sadepäivä (literal usage) · alt јаҥмырлу кӱн (literal usage) · izh vihmapäivä (literal usage) · lv nebalta diena (difficult period of need) · tr kara gün (difficult period of need) · tr kötü gün (difficult period of need)