rat
/ɹæt/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms rats ratting ratted RATing RATed RAT'd
- noun Any of the numerous members of several rodent families that usually have short limbs, a pointy snout, a long, hairless tail, and a body length greater than about 12 cm, or 5 inches.
- noun (zoology) A medium-sized rodent belonging to the genus Rattus.
- noun (informal) A person who is known for betrayal. “rat bastard”
- noun (informal) An informant or snitch.
- noun (informal) A scab: a worker who acts against trade union policies.
- noun (slang) A person who routinely spends time at a particular location. “Our teenager has become a mall rat.”
- noun A wad of shed hair used as part of a hairstyle.
- noun A roll of material used to puff out the hair, which is turned over it.
- verb (of a dog, etc.) To hunt or kill rats.
- verb (intransitive) To betray a political party, cause or principle; to betray someone, to desert a person or thing.
- verb (informal, intransitive) To work as a scab, going against trade union policies.
- verb (chiefly US) To backcomb (hair).
- verb (intransitive, with on or out) To inform on someone; to betray someone to the police or authorities. “He ratted on his coworker.”
- noun (regional) A scratch or a score.
- noun (nautical, regional) A place in the sea with rapid currents and crags where a ship is likely to be torn apart in stormy weather.
- verb (regional) To scratch or score. “He ratted a vertical line on his face with a pocket knife.”
- verb (regional, rare, obsolete) To tear, rip, rend. “Ratted to shreds.”
- verb Damn, drat, blast; used in oaths.
- noun (military, slang) A ration.
- verb (transitive, computing) To hack someone with a remote-access Trojan.
Synonyms
fink ratfink betrayer snake in the grass quisling traitor backstabber cockatrice double-crosser ratter recreant renegade serpent snake swike treacher treacherer treasonist turntippet withersake scab strikebreaker blackleg rotter dirty dog skunk stinker stinkpot bum puke
Etymology
From Middle English raat, rat, ratt, ratte, rotte, from Old English ræt, rætt, from Proto-West Germanic *ratt, from Proto-Germanic *rattaz, *rattō (“rat”), of uncertain origin, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₃d- (“to gnaw, scrape, scratch”). However, the rat may have been unknown in Northern Europe in antiquity, and the Proto-Germanic word may have referred to a different animal; see *rattaz for more. Attestation of this family of words begins in the 12th century.
Cognate with North Frisian root (“rat”), Saterland Frisian Rotte (“rat”), West Frisian rôt (“rat”), Dutch rat, rot (“rat”), German Ratte (“rat”), Luxembourgish Rat (“rat”), Vilamovian rot, rott (“rat”), Yiddish ראַץ (rats, “rat”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål rotte (“rat”), Faroese and Icelandic rotta (“rat”), Norwegian Nynorsk rotta, rotte, røtte (“rat”), Swedish råtta (“rat”), Latin rattus, ratus (“rat”) (whence Asturian ratu (“mouse”), Catalan rata (“rat”), French rat (“rat”), Italian ratto (“rat”), Portuguese rato (“rat”), Spanish rata (“rat”), rato (“male rat”)); also Latin rōdō (“to bite, gnaw, nibble; to backbite, disparage, slander”), Sanskrit रदति (radati, “to scrape, scratch; to cut path, pave; to lead river into a channel; to bestow, convey”).
Some of the Germanic cognates show considerable consonant variation, e.g. Middle Low German ratte, radde; Middle High German rate, ratte, ratze. The irregularity may be symptomatic of a late dispersal of the word, although Kroonen accounts for it with a Proto-Germanic stem *raþō nom., *ruttaz gen., showing both ablaut and a Kluge's law alternation, with the variation arising from varying remodellings in the descendants. Kroonen states that this requires a Proto-Indo-European etymon in final *t and is incompatible with the usual derivation from Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₃d- (“to scrape, scratch, gnaw”).
From Middle English ratten, further etymology unknown. Compare Middle Low German retten (“to tear, tear up”), Middle High German ratzen (“to scratch; rasp; tear”). Could be related to write. See also rit.
From remote-access Trojan.
Webster’s 1913
- noun One of the several species of small rodents of the genus Mus and allied genera, larger than mice, that infest houses, stores, and ships, especially the Norway, or brown, rat (M. Alexandrinus). These were introduced into Anerica from the Old World.
- noun A round and tapering mass of hair, or similar material, used by women to support the puffs and rolls of their natural hair. [Local, U.S.]
- verb In English politics, to desert one's party from interested motives; to forsake one's associates for one's own advantage; in the trades, to work for less wages, or on other conditions, than those established by a trades union.
- verb To catch or kill rats.
Etymology [AS. ræt; akin to D. rat, OHG. rato, ratta, G. ratte, ratze, OLG. ratta, LG. & Dan. rotte, Sw. råtta, F. rat, Ir. & Gael radan, Armor. raz, of unknown origin. Cf. Raccoon.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “rat”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details