rat
Pluralrats
Pluralrats
- 1A rodent like a large mouse, with a pointed snout and a long, nearly hairless tail, especially of the genus Rattus; also similar rodents.
A rat had built its nest behind the old refrigerator.
Brown rats are among the most widespread mammals on Earth.
UsageSet phrase: smell a rat, to suspect that something dishonest is going on.
Note
True rats are the genus Rattus, but kangaroo rats, woodrats and other rodents share the name, and everyday use stretches it to voles and other lookalikes.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- True rats belong to the genus Rattus. en.wikipedia.org
- Kangaroo rats and woodrats also bear the name rat. en.wikipedia.org
- Some voles are informally called rats. en.wikipedia.org
- 2To betray someone or something, especially by informing on people to the police or other authorities, or by deserting a party or cause.
She refused to rat on the others, even under pressure.
He feared his cellmate would rat to the guards at the first chance.
UsageYou rat on someone or rat someone out; a pronoun goes in the middle: rat us out.
Note
Without a particle, the verb can also mean deserting a party or cause, as rats were said to leave a sinking ship.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Rats were traditionally said to leave a sinking ship. gutenberg.org
- 3A person who habitually spends much of their time at a particular place.
He was a mall rat through and through, drifting between stores until closing.
By six in the morning the usual gym rats were already on the benches, chatting between sets.
UsageComes after a place: gym rat, mall rat, rink rat; often affectionate.
Similarregular
- 4A contemptible or disloyal person, especially one who betrays others by informing on them.
They treated her like a rat once they learned she had leaked their plans.
He turned out to be a rat, selling out his closest allies for money.
UsageOften in exclamations, what a rat!; the set insult rat bastard is much coarser.
Similartraitor, informer, snitch, turncoat, fink
Note
Contempt is the whole point of this use, and it goes back at least to Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, first serialized in 1881–82: "any pair of rats of you." It reaches further than informing, because anyone who leaves others in the lurch qualifies ("What a rat, leaving us stranded here!"). Its near neighbors run from snake in the grass to the weightier traitor and quisling.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Treasure Island. en.wikipedia.org
- Treasure Island was first serialized in 1881–82. en.wikipedia.org
- The quoted words occur in Treasure Island, spoken by Long John Silver, confirming this contemptuous use by that period. en.wikisource.org
Less common meanings
- 5A scab; a worker who acts against trade union policies, especially one who keeps working during a strike.
Strikers shouted at the rats heading into the factory.
Management hired a rat to keep the line running while the union held out.
Similarscab, strikebreaker, blackleg
- 6Short form of muskrat: a large semiaquatic North American rodent, often trapped for its fur.
Trappers know a rat will build its lodge where cattails grow thick along the marsh edge.
Out on the frozen marsh, dome-shaped rat houses built from cattails poked up through the snow.
Note
The clipping belongs to the trapper and the marsh. L. W. Pierce, writing in Hunter-trader-trapper in 1910, describes "the price of rats" and "spearing rats" once the marsh froze over. The plural is simply rats. Context matters here, because muskrat itself can also name certain shrews. In trapping talk, the marsh and the pelt make clear that the semiaquatic rodent is meant.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- Rat is a clipping of muskrat. en.wiktionary.org
- L. W. Pierce's 1910 contribution to Hunter-trader-trapper contains both quoted phrases and describes spearing after the marsh froze. en.wiktionary.org
- The plural is rats. en.wiktionary.org
- Muskrat can also denote certain shrews. en.wiktionary.org
- The animal intended in the trapping context is a semiaquatic rodent. en.wikipedia.org
- 7Used in mild oaths to express anger, frustration, or annoyance.
“But, rat me, sir,” cried Foster in bewilderment, “tis too generous—'pon honour it is. I can't consent to it. No, rat me, I can't.”
1904, Rafael Sabatini, The Tavern KnightSimilardrat, darn, blast, dang
Note
Its classic form takes an object, on the pattern of damn me. In Rafael Sabatini's The Tavern Knight (1904), Foster protests in bewilderment, "No, rat me, I can't." The curse belongs with drat and blast, softened stand-ins for damn, and it shares their mildness. That makes it suit exasperation that is more comic than wounding.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- The oath occurs with an object, as in rat me. gutenberg.org
- Rafael Sabatini wrote The Tavern Knight. gutenberg.org
- The Tavern Knight was first published in 1904. openlibrary.org
- Foster says the exact quoted words in bewilderment. gutenberg.org
- Rat belongs with drat and blast as an oath equivalent to damn. en.wiktionary.org
- 8To backcomb hair, combing it toward the scalp to add volume.
Backstage, dancers rat their hair into towering shapes for the show.
He ratted her hair at the roots to add volume before the photo shoot.
UsageOften as a participle: ratted hair.
Note
American usage has a verb to match the hairdresser's noun: ratting is backcombing, which builds with the comb the height that the padded roll supplies. Rickie Lee Jones's Last Chance Texaco (2021) remembers 1962, when "the higher a girl's hair was ratted the more available she was."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Ratting means backcombing to add volume. en.wikipedia.org
- Hair padding called a rat supplies height to a hairstyle. en.wikipedia.org
- Rickie Lee Jones wrote Last Chance Texaco. groveatlantic.com
- Last Chance Texaco was first published in 2021. everand.com
- The quoted words appear in Jones's memoir and refer to 1962. en.wiktionary.org
- 9To hunt down and kill rats, especially as a means of pest control.
Working terriers rat through hedgerows and barns to keep down infestations.
The dogs ratted across the whole farm before the harvest came in.
UsageOften in go ratting, for people or dogs hunting rats.
- 10
- 11A pad or roll of material, or a wad of the wearer's own shed hair, over which the hair is turned to puff it out.
A rat under the front sweep gave her pompadour its dramatic height.
She fixed a rat along the hairline and combed the smooth strands over it.
Similarpad
- 12Vulgar slang for the vulva or vagina.
The long bike ride left her rat sore and chafed by the time she got home.
Crude as ever, he joked that her tiny bikini bottoms barely covered her rat.
Note
It is coarse British slang, noted especially in north-west London but heard more widely. Its typical settings are blunt and bodily: the crude command "Get your rat out," or Wet Leg's song "Too Late Now" (2021), in which the singer rejects outside advice about shaving and uses the word for the body part in question. It will offend outside close, informal company. The standard anatomical terms are the safe choice everywhere else.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- The anatomical sense is documented as vulgar British slang, specifically associated with north-west London. en.wiktionary.org
- The quoted command is documented as an example of this sense. en.wiktionary.org
- Wet Leg's song Too Late Now was released in 2021. en.wikipedia.org
- The song rejects outside advice about shaving and uses rat in the anatomical sense. en.wiktionary.org
- 13A ration, especially a portion of food issued to military personnel.
Before the exercise, the quartermaster issued everyone forty-eight hours of rats, and most of us had eaten the chocolate bars by nightfall.
The resupply truck was two days late, so the platoon shared out whatever rats were left and hoped the weather would hold.
Note
Military slang keeps this one apart: it shares a spelling, but not an origin, with both the animal and the scratching word. In the plural, rats are rations, and the same clipping gives rat pack, Commonwealth military slang for a soldier's field ration pack. Outside a military setting the animal reading will win, and ration is the clearer word.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Rat meaning a ration has a different origin from rat meaning the animal. en.wiktionary.org
- Rat meaning a ration has a different origin from rat meaning to scratch. en.wiktionary.org
- Rat is military slang for a ration; its plural is rats. en.wiktionary.org
- Rat pack is formed by shortening ration pack. rhodesianservices.org
- Rat pack is Commonwealth military slang for a soldier's field ration pack. en.wikipedia.org
- 14A scratch or a score left on a surface.
- 15To scratch or score a surface.
- 16A stretch of sea with rapid currents and rocky crags where a ship is likely to be torn apart in stormy weather.
- 17To tear, rip, or pull apart.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
From Middle English ratte, from Old English rætt, from Proto-Germanic *rattaz (compare West Frisian rôt and Dutch rat). Its ultimate origin is uncertain, possibly from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'to scrape, scratch, gnaw', though rats may have been unknown in Northern Europe when the Germanic word arose, so the early word may have referred to a different animal.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- English rat derives through Middle English ratte and Old English rætt from reconstructed Proto-Germanic *rattaz. en.wiktionary.org
- West Frisian rôt and Dutch rat are cognates of English rat. en.wiktionary.org
- The ultimate origin is uncertain; a Proto-Indo-European root meaning scrape, scratch or gnaw is one proposed source. en.wiktionary.org
- Rats may have been unknown in Northern Europe when the Germanic word arose, and the word may originally have denoted another animal. en.wiktionary.org
The word comes from Middle English ratten, whose earlier origin is unknown. It may be related to write. Forms to compare are Middle High German ratzen, meaning to scratch, rasp, or tear, and Middle Low German retten, meaning to tear up.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- This sense of rat comes from Middle English ratten. en.wiktionary.org
- The earlier origin of Middle English ratten is unknown. en.wiktionary.org
- It may be related to write. en.wiktionary.org
- Middle High German ratzen is a comparison form meaning to scratch, rasp, or tear. en.wiktionary.org
- Middle Low German retten is a comparison form meaning to tear up. en.wiktionary.org