rattrap

[ rat-trap ]
See synonyms for rattrap on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a device for catching rats.

  2. a run-down, filthy, or dilapidated place.

  1. a difficult, involved, or entangling situation.

Origin of rattrap

1
1425–75; late Middle English. See rat, trap1

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use rattrap in a sentence

  • I put him into the best substitute for a bird-cage that I could find, and that was a large wire rat-trap!

  • Marrying a woman for her munny is vera mutch like setting a rat-trap, and baiting it with yure own finger.

    Josh Billings, Hiz Sayings | Henry Wheeler Shaw
  • The old lady recovers her health—the future shuts down like a rat trap and what does the poor girl do?

    The Blue Germ | Martin Swayne
  • His blasted jingling old rat-trap has called the whole household to look at us!

    Sir Jasper Carew | Charles James Lever
  • Cinderella brought the rat-trap to her, and in it there were three huge rats.

    The Tales of Mother Goose | Charles Perrault

British Dictionary definitions for rat-trap

rat-trap

noun
  1. a device for catching rats

  2. informal a type of bicycle pedal having serrated steel foot pads and a toe clip

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