What is "mad dogs and englishmen"

n. To express that it is very hot weather.

Mad Dogs and Englishmen may refer to:

• "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" (song), 1931 song by Noël Coward, and origin of the phrase
• Mad Dogs and Englishmen (album), 1970 live album by Joe Cocker and others
• Mad Dogs & Englishmen (film), 1971 film from the same tour as the album featuring Leon Russell and Bobby Keys
• Mad Dogs and Englishmen (1995 film), 1995 Canadian/British film
• Mad Dogs and Englishmen (Doctor Who), 2002 Doctor Who novel

Mad Dogs and Englishmen is a BBC Books original novel written by Paul Magrs and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Eighth Doctor, Fitz and Anji.

"Mad Dogs and Englishmen" is a song written by Noël Coward and first performed in The Third Little Show at the Music Box Theatre, New York, on 1 June 1931, by Beatrice Lillie. The following year it was used in the revue Words and Music and also released in a "studio version". It then became a signature feature in Coward's cabaret act.

The song is especially known for the line "Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun" with which most verses begin and end.

According to Sheridan Morley, Coward wrote the song while driving from Hanoi to Saigon "without pen, paper, or piano". Coward himself elucidated: "I wrestled in my mind with the complicated rhythms and rhymes of the song until finally it was complete, without even the aid of pencil and paper. I sang it triumphantly and unaccompanied to my travelling companion on the verandah of a small jungle guest house. Not only Jeffrey [Amherst], but the gecko lizards and the tree frogs gave every vocal indication of enthusiasm".

Mad Dogs and Englishmen is a 1995 British thriller film directed by Henry Cole and starring Elizabeth Hurley, C. Thomas Howell and Joss Ackland. The screenplay concerns an upper-class drug addict pursued by the criminal underworld.