Word.ws English Dictionary

gym rat

gym rat noun: a person who spends an unusually large amount of time at a gym.

Noun

gym rat (plural gym rats)

  1. (colloquial) A person who spends an unusually large amount of time at a gym.
    • Three decades ago, the trappings of sports equipment in those rooms took a magnetic hold on "gym rat" McGuire.1977, Newsweek, volume 89
    • I was a real "gym rat." I'd go home and eat, then come back to the gym and play some more. I mean, I practically lived in that gym.1989, Larry Bird, Drive: The Story of My Life, page 42
    Synonyms:
    gym bunny

Examples of gym rat in a sentence

  • This gym rat dripping tattoos in a sweatshirt with the sleeves ripped off was brooding at the juke box, like it had just asked him a very difficult question that he was determined to answer.1995, David Rabe, A Primitive Heart:
  • They wore suits, casual pants, and sports shirts and generally managed to look like solid citizens rather than gym rats.1998, Arnold Schwarzennegger, The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, page 672:
  • For the average gym rat, Anthony recommends being wary of longer-than-necessary rest periods.2010, Eric Velazquez, “Power Pairings”, in Reps!, volume 17, number 84:

Synonyms of gym rat

Forms of gym rat

pluralgym rats
alternative formgym-rat
alternative formgymrat

Origin of gym rat

US origin, late 1970s.

Questions about gym rat

What does gym rat mean?
Gym rat means a person who spends an unusually large amount of time at a gym.
How do you use gym rat in a sentence?
This gym rat dripping tattoos in a sweatshirt with the sleeves ripped off was brooding at the juke box, like it had just asked him a very difficult question that he was determined to answer.
What part of speech is gym rat?
Gym rat is a noun.
What is the plural of gym rat?
The plural of gym rat is gym rats.

Words near gym rat in the dictionary

  1. gym itch
  2. gym knickers
  3. gym muscles
  4. gym queen
  5. gym queens
  6. gym rat
  7. gym rats
  8. gym scooter
  9. gym scooters
  10. gym shoe
  11. gym shoes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gym rat (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-gym rat.wav.

Cite this entry: “gym rat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gym_rat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.