fall in towels

[lidiavianu]

the rain fell in towels

is that to rain heavily? I could not find it anywhere...

Lidia

[Quizmonster]

Are you sure you mean 'towels'? If so, I have never heard of it. On the other hand, I have heard of rain falling in 'sheets' and that does mean raining heavily.

[lidiavianu]

It's 'towles' but Ackroyd is unlike any other language user. I guess I must play it by ear...

Lidia

[jno]

the only meaning for towle given in my Oxford Dictionary is another spelling of toll; and none of the meanings of toll makes any sense. So I think QM is probably right: rain falling in sheets means heavy rain; a towel is heavier than a sheet, so it could mean very heavy rain indeed. But I don't know why he should spell it towle.

Poets can be such hard work.

[lidiavianu]

sorry for the typo, it was towel all right...

[Quizmonster]

Perhaps - as J suggests above - the writer was simply taking the idiom one stage further...ie from sheets to towels, the latter being thicker and even more prone to getting soaked!
In a speech I recently heard, the speaker was talking about how impatient we all are nowadays. He referred to himself as sitting at his computer waiting for Google to come up with a response and shouting, "Come on! I haven't got all minute!"
Normally, of course, we'd say "I haven't got all day!"...but using 'minute' just makes the point about impatience more effectively. Same perhaps with sheet/towel, though I must say myself that - if this was his intention - it's a bit laboured and totally lacking the wit in the day/minute example.

[lidiavianu]

I had the same impression he was playing with the habit of cliches. He's damn good, this volume of poems is a feat.
Waiting for google, on the otehr hand, is not very different from waiting for godot... though that's mean to say. This is how I got to you, after all!

Thanks again,

Lidia