rat
Meanings
- 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.
- A medium-sized rodent belonging to the genus Rattus.
- A person who is known for betrayal.
- An informant or snitch.
- A scab: a worker who acts against trade union policies.
- A person who routinely spends time at a particular location.
- A wad of shed hair used as part of a hairstyle.
- A roll of material used to puff out the hair, which is turned over it.
- Vagina, vulva.
- Ellipsis of muskrat.
- To hunt or kill rats.
- To betray a political party, cause or principle; to betray someone, to desert a person or thing.
- To work as a scab, going against trade union policies.
- To backcomb (hair).
- To inform on someone; to betray someone to the police or authorities.
- A scratch or a score.
- A place in the sea with rapid currents and crags where a ship is likely to be torn apart in stormy weather.
- To scratch or score.
- To tear, rip, rend.
- Damn, drat, blast; used in oaths.
- A ration.
- The first of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar.
- Initialism of rapid antigen test.
- Initialism of Rapid Area Transit.
- Initialism of ram air turbine.
- Initialism of remote-access Trojan.
- Initialism of relevant alternatives theory.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
From Middle English ratte, rat, rotte, from Old English rætt, from Proto-West Germanic *ratt, from Proto-Germanic *rattaz, *rattō (compare West Frisian rôt, Dutch rat), of uncertain origin, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₃d- (“to scrape, scratch, gnaw”). 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. 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”).