rat
any of several long-tailed rodents of the family Muridae, of the genus Rattus and related genera, distinguished from the mouse by being larger.
any of various mammals similar to or related to the long-tailed rodents of the genus Rattus.
Slang. a scoundrel.
Slang.
a person who abandons or betrays their party or associates, especially in a time of trouble.
an informer.
a scab laborer.
Slang. a person who frequents a specified place: a mall rat;gym rats.
a pad with tapered ends formerly used in women's hairstyles to give the appearance of greater thickness.
rats, Slang. (an exclamation of disappointment, disgust, or disbelief.)
Slang.
to desert one's party or associates, especially in a time of trouble.
to turn informer; squeal: He ratted on the gang, and the police arrested them.
to work as a scab.
to hunt or catch rats.
to make (the hair) appear thicker by use of a small pad of material or by teasing.
rat out, Slang. to inform on: He ratted out his partners in exchange for a lighter sentence.
Idioms about rat
smell a rat, to suspect or surmise treachery; have suspicion: After noting several discrepancies in his client's story, the attorney began to smell a rat.
Origin of rat
1Other words from rat
- rat·like, adjective
Words Nearby rat
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use rat in a sentence
Both groups produced similar hormone spikes when stressed, but in the juvenile rats, levels took much longer to return to normal.
Puberty can repair the brain’s stress responses after hardship early in life | Esther Landhuis | August 28, 2020 | Science NewsThe team has already been placing them in rats and primates.
Elon Musk’s brain company plans a big reveal on Friday. Here’s what we already know | Verne Kopytoff | August 27, 2020 | FortuneOther researchers studied what happens when adolescent rats move into “enriched” environments.
Puberty may reboot the brain and behaviors | Esther Landhuis | August 27, 2020 | Science News For StudentsBlueberry-fed rats spent almost 70 percent of their time exploring the new object, as expected of animals that recognized the old object.
What will astronauts need to survive the dangerous journey to Mars? | Maria Temming | July 15, 2020 | Science NewsEven if they find your trash can instead, he adds, “that’s necessarily going to support fewer rats.”
The ‘ratpocalypse’ isn’t nigh, according to service call data | Bethany Brookshire | July 14, 2020 | Science News
One rat had once fallen on his head, he said, during a rat raid of a local home.
Since rat root comes from a plant that grows on the edge of the lake there are concerns that the plant is carrying toxins.
Chief Adam offers us some of the local medicine called rat root.
The episode includes satirical images of crime-ridden, rat-infested slums overrun by child-biting monkeys.
Mr. Simpson Goes to Washington: How Homer Influenced Politics | Asawin Suebsaeng | August 27, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTA cabin filled with the rat Pack and the ladies who loved them.
Next morning Judy shouted that there was a rat in the nursery, and thus he forgot to tell her the wonderful news.
Kipling Stories and Poems Every Child Should Know, Book II | Rudyard KiplingHe had repeated till he was thrice weary the statement that "the Cat lay on the Mat and the rat came in."
Kipling Stories and Poems Every Child Should Know, Book II | Rudyard KiplingGrowling horribly, the enraged brute seized poor Pearson and shook him as a terrier dog shakes a rat.
Hunting the Lions | R.M. BallantyneI was here a little while ago and nobody answered my knock, though I could hear that typewriter going rat, tat, tat all the time.
The Girls of Central High on the Stage | Gertrude W. Morrisonrat this pawn of the Eye may have been, but even a cornered rat will fight with the courage of a lion.
British Dictionary definitions for rat
/ (ræt) /
informal a person who deserts his or her friends or associates, esp in time of trouble
informal a worker who works during a strike; blackleg; scab
slang, mainly US an informer; stool pigeon
informal a despicable person
smell a rat to detect something suspicious
(intr usually foll by on) informal
to divulge secret information (about); betray the trust (of)
to default (on); abandon: he ratted on the project at the last minute
to hunt and kill rats
Origin of rat
1- See also rats
Derived forms of rat
- ratlike, adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with rat
In addition to the idioms beginning with rat
- rat on
- rat race
also see:
- like a drowned rat
- smell a rat
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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