What is the meaning of the phrase 'it never rains but it pours'?

Answer 1

The correct idiom is "When it rains, it pours". It means a situation when one instance of "bad luck" or a problem and is followed by another problem, and another, and so on. For example:John wakes up late. He forgets to bring his homework. The teacher announces that all homework turned in today will receive 20 extra points, but John doesn't have his homework so he misses out on the extra points plus gets a bad grade because of no homework. After school, he decides to stop for an ice cream cone to cheer himself up. But the top scoop falls off onto the ground. When he jumped backward so the ice cream wouldn't fall on his new shoes, he stepped into a mud puddle behind him. He knew his mom would be mad, so when he gets home he decides to clean up the shoes on his own. He grabs what he thinks is stain remover and pours a little on his shoe--- but then, sees that the bottle contained blue dye. He tries to wipe it off, but can't--but he ended up staining a new bath towel trying to get the dye off his shoes. He throws the towel into the washer, trying to fix what he did. But he didn't realize his sister's white blouses were already in the washer. All her blouses and the towel turn light blue. He adds bleach to try to remove the color--and spills some bleach on his blue jeans, making a white area where the bleach hit. He throws up his hands, and remembers how his grandmother always says, "When it rains, it pours!"

Often, we don't cause the problems, but still have a series of things go wrong. The problems don't even need to be connected to each other.

Answer 2

The statement 'It never rains but it pours' is a saying. The sentence means that things don't happen just a little bit, but in an unforgettable way that leaves an impact. It tends to be used when an individual faces a host of unexpected problems.
"It never rains but what it pours", is probably a more common version of this saying. What this means is that whatever "it" is, didn't come in a small amount. Typically this saying would be in reference to something bad or unwelcome (often bad luck) .

For example, if one day your math teacher assigned a long homework assignment, as did your history and English teachers you might say to a friend, "Three of my teachers assigned a lot of homework today". Your friend might respond with, "Yeah, it never rains but what it pours."
Something that appears to have a simple solution rarely ever does.
or
A lot of bad things always seem to happen all at once.
When something happens after a long pause, it happens in large amounts.

Answer 3

Another saying is, "When it rains, it pours." It's origin is the 1911 slogan of the Morton Salt Company. "It never rains but it pours" was an old English proverb that predates the Morton slogan. The article link explains both.

Answer 4

That is the marketing slogan for Morton's Salt. The little girl on the salt shaker my name is jeff