English Explanatory Dictionary

plague rat

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A rat which acts as a vector of the plague; a sewer rat.
  2. Someone who refuses to follow anti-pandemic rules and guidelines or even takes actions, such as attending unnecessary events, that promote the spread of illness.

Word forms

plague rat plague rats

Etymology

Modern sense coined during the COVID-19 pandemic as a reference to rats being a common carrier of disease, possibly also looking at the role of rats in the Black Plague and influenced by the use of "rat" as a derogatory insult in general.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on P Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary