What it means
A Yorkshire way of saying it's absolutely chucking it down, not just a bit rainy but proper soaking rain that gets through your coat, your jeans, your soul, the lot. If it's siling down, stepping outside is basically volunteering to get drenched.
Usage examples
"It were siling it down all morning and the dog still wanted his walk. Came back looking like a drowned rat, both of us, hallway carpet is done for."
"Take a brolly, it's siling down out there."
"We got soaked at the match, it was siling the whole time."
"No chance we're walking to the pub, it's siling down and that shortcut's already turned into a swamp."
"Went out for five minutes to put bins out, got back in looking like it'd gone siling just for me."
Where it comes from
From Yorkshire dialect sile, meaning to pour or strain liquid. That goes back to Old Norse sila or sila, tied to the idea of liquid running through or being filtered. So when rain's siling down, it feels less like weather and more like the sky's emptying a bucket through a sieve.
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