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rat

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rat

  [rat] noun, interjection, verb, rat⋅ted, rat⋅ting.
Use rat in a Sentence
–noun
1. any of several long-tailed rodents of the family Muridae, of the genus Rattus and related genera, distinguished from the mouse by being larger.
2. any of various similar or related animals.
3. Slang. a scoundrel.
4. Slang.
a. a person who abandons or betrays his or her party or associates, esp. in a time of trouble.
b. an informer.
c. a scab laborer.
5. Slang. a person who frequents a specified place: a mall rat; gym rats.
6. a pad with tapered ends formerly used in women's hair styles to give the appearance of greater thickness.
–interjection
7. rats, Slang. (an exclamation of disappointment, disgust, or disbelief.)
–verb (used without object)
8. Slang.
a. to desert one's party or associates, esp. in a time of trouble.
b. to turn informer; squeal: He ratted on the gang, and the police arrested them.
c. to work as a scab.
9. to hunt or catch rats.
–verb (used with object)
10. to dress (the hair) with or as if with a rat.
—Idiom
11. 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:
bef. 1000; ME rat(t)e, OE ræt; c. D rat, G Ratz, Ratte

Related forms:
ratlike, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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rat   (rāt)   
n.  

    1. Any of various long-tailed rodents resembling mice but larger, especially one of the genus Rattus.

    2. Any of various animals similar to one of these long-tailed rodents.

    3. A despicable person, especially one who betrays or informs upon associates.

    4. A scab laborer.

  2. Slang

    1. A despicable person, especially one who betrays or informs upon associates.

    2. A scab laborer.

  3. A pad of material, typically hair, worn as part of a woman's coiffure to puff out her own hair.

v.   rat·ted, rat·ting, rats

v.   intr.

  1. To hunt for or catch rats, especially with the aid of dogs.

  2. Slang To betray one's associates by giving information: ratted on his best friend to the police.

  3. Slang To work as a scab laborer.

v.   tr.
To puff out (the hair) with or as if with a pad of material.

[Middle English, from Old English ræt; see rēd- in Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary
rat

  1. n.
    a wretched-acting person. (Also a term of address.) : You dirty rat, you!
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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rat (on (so))

  1. in.
    to inform (on someone). : Bill said he was going to rat on that punk.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

rat 
O.E. ræt. Similar words in Celtic (Gael. radan), Romance (It. ratto, Sp. rata, Fr. rat) and Gmc. (M.L.G. rotte, Ger. ratte) languages, but connection is uncertain and origin unknown. Perhaps from V.L. *rattus, but Weekley thinks this is of Gmc. origin, "the animal having come from the East with the race-migrations" and the word passing thence to the Romanic languages. American Heritage and Tucker connect O.E. ræt to L. rodere and thus PIE *red- "to scrape, scratch, gnaw," source of rodent (q.v.). Klein says there is no connection and suggests a possible cognate in Gk. rhine "file, rasp." Weekley connects them with a question mark and Barnhart writes, "the relationship to each other of the Germanic, Romance, and Celtic words for rat is uncertain." OED says "probable" the rat word spread from Germanic to Romance, but takes no position on ultimate origin. M.E. common form was ratton, from augmented O.Fr. form raton. Sense of "one who abandons his associates" (1629) is from belief that rats leave a ship about to sink or a house about to fall and led to meaning "traitor, informant" (1902; verb 1910). Interjection rats is Amer.Eng., 1886. To smell a rat is c.1550. Rat-race "competitive struggle" is 1939. Ratsbane (1523) is arsenic. Rat fink is teen slang from 1963. Rathole in fig. sense of "nasty, messy place" first attested 1812. _____-rat, "person who frequents _____" (in earliest ref. dock-rat) is from 1864. Rat-pack "juvenile gang" is from 1951.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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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)
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

rat (rāt)
n.
Any of various long-tailed rodents of the genus Rattus and related genera, including certain strains used in scientific research and certain species that are vectors for various diseases.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Idioms & Phrases

rat

In addition to the idioms beginning with rat, also see like a drowned rat; smell a rat.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Abbreviations & Acronyms
RAT
right anterior thigh
The American Heritage® Abbreviations Dictionary, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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