Meanings
- humorouspluralplural onlyAn explanation for a crash of thunder.
The corrugated iron roof made the gutted house a drum, the high hat hiss and clack of it, white noise with thunder noises off, 'the angels moving the furniture about' as my great-gran used to say.
2019, Dan Richards, Outpost: A Journey to the Wild Ends of the Earth2 more examples
I remember my Mother defusing our scare of summer thunder with an explanation learned from her Mother. 'Nothing to fear. Only the angels moving the furniture around in one of the many mansions,' she'd tell us.
2004, Stan Monaghan, In the Wake of Maureen Reilly, page 103She told Camillus not to cry, it was only the angels moving the furniture in heaven. Sometimes, after the storms, she sensed that the mountains were prowling around the house, in two opposing lines, like a grand chain.
2013, Valerie Lawson, Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P. L. Travers, page 216
Cite this entry
angels moving the furniture. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/angels%20moving%20the%20furniture
“angels moving the furniture.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/angels%20moving%20the%20furniture. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “angels moving the furniture,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/angels%20moving%20the%20furniture.
Source: angels moving the furniture on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.