Medical Dictionary
Main Entry:
rat Pronunciation:
'rat Function:
noun : any of the numerous rodents (family Muridae) of
Rattus and related genera that differ from themurid mice by their usually considerably larger size and by features of the teeth and other structures and that include forms (as the brown rat, the black rat, and the roof rat) which live in and abouthuman habitations and in ships, have become naturalized by commerce in most parts of the world, and are destructive pests consuming or destroying vast quantities of food and other goods and acting asvectors of various diseases (as bubonic plague)