Dictionary

send her down Hughie en · INTJ

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

Hughie (“diminutive of Hugh, a male given name”) is a god of rain, addressed as an ordinary person.

Meanings

1. (Australia) An appeal for continued rain, invoked when it comes after a long drought.
   • ‘Ah, that′s it, send her down, Hughie!’ he yelled at the sky. ‘Hughie?’ ‘The rain, my darlin'. Hughie sends down the rain.’ ‘You mean God?’ she asked, shocked. Aunt Ann was firm about not taking the Lord′s name in vain. ‘Nah. Hughie′s just ... Hughie.[…]’ 2010, Jackie French, A Waltz for Matilda:
   • All night it poured down but Dinny grinned and applauded. ‘Send her down, Hughie!’ he cried, as the diggers used to on Coolgardie and Hannans. 1948, Katharine Susannah Prichard, Golden Miles, page 425:
   • The wind was bucking round to the west and heavy rain had started again. “Send her down, Hughie!” he said under his breath, thinking with satisfaction of the soil being gouged out of Sunderland′s paddock and carried off into the rising river. 1970, Colin Thiele, Labourers in the Vineyard, page 229:

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