Word.ws English Dictionary

rat

/ɹæt/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ɹat/

rat 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. Also the ellipsis of muskrat.

rat: any of the numerous members of several rodent families that usually have short limbs, a pointy...
Image: Chuck Homler, Focus On Wildlife, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

rat (plural rats)

  1. 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.
  2. A medium-sized rodent belonging to the genus Rattus.
    • Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems—surgical foam, a thermal gel depot, a microcapsule or biodegradable polymer beads.2013 May-June, Charles T. Ambrose, “Alzheimer’s Disease”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 200
  3. (informal) A person who is known for betrayal.
    • Near-synonyms: rouge, scoundrel, snake; see also Thesaurus:villain
    • rat bastard
  4. (informal) An informant or snitch.
  5. (informal) A scab: a worker who acts against trade union policies.
  6. (slang) A person who routinely spends time at a particular location.
    • Our teenager has become a mall rat.
    • He loved hockey and was a devoted rink rat.
  7. A wad of shed hair used as part of a hairstyle.
  8. A roll of material used to puff out the hair, which is turned over it.
  9. (UK, slang, vulgar, north-west London) Vagina, vulva.
    • Get your rat out.
    • I don't need no dating app to tell me if I look like crap / To tell me if I'm thin or fat, to tell me should I shave my rat / I don't need no radio, no MTV, no BBC / I just need a bubble bath to set me on a higher path2022, Chambers Hester Louise, Champion Michael James, Teasdale Rhian Louise, “Too Late Now”, in Wet Leg, performed by Wet Leg, Domino, →OCLC

Verb (1)

rat (third-person singular simple present rats, present participle ratting, simple past and past participle ratted)

  1. (usually) To hunt or kill rats.
  2. (intransitive) To betray a political party, cause or principle; to betray someone, to desert a person or thing.
  3. (informal, intransitive) To work as a scab, going against trade union policies.
  4. (US) To backcomb (hair).
    • In 1962, the higher a girl's hair was ratted the more available she was, it was simply understood.2021, Rickie Lee Jones, Last Chance Texaco, Grove Press, published 2022, page 31
  5. (intransitive, with on or out) To inform on someone; to betray someone to the police or authorities.
    • He ratted on his coworker.
    • He is going to rat us out!

Noun (2)

rat (plural rats)

  1. (regional) A scratch or a score.
  2. (regional) A place in the sea with rapid currents and crags where a ship is likely to be torn apart in stormy weather.

Verb (2)

rat (third-person singular simple present rats, present participle ratting, simple past and past participle ratted)

  1. (regional) To scratch or score.
    • He ratted a vertical line on his face with a pocket knife.
  2. (obsolete, rare, regional) To tear, rip, rend.
    • Ratted to shreds.
  3. Damn, drat, blast; used in oaths.
    • “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, chapter XXVI, in The Tavern Knight

Noun (3)

rat (plural rats)

  1. (slang) A ration.
    • With regards to the testing of his product, the initial blood analysis had come back confirming huge, distinctive nutritional superiority for Stewart's military ration pack. Given that the policy of the British Army is to be fully ready for war at the drop of a hat, he was sitting on the potential...2014, John, Buffoon, page 243

Verb (3)

rat (third-person singular simple present rats, present participle ratting, simple past and past participle ratted)

  1. (transitive) To hack someone with a remote-access Trojan.

Noun (4) capitalized: RAT

RAT (countable and uncountable, plural RATs)

  1. (abbreviation, countable, initialism) Initialism of rapid antigen test.
  2. (abbreviation, countable, initialism, public transportation) Initialism of Rapid Area Transit.
  3. (abbreviation, countable, initialism) Initialism of ram air turbine.
  4. (abbreviation, countable, initialism) Initialism of remote-access Trojan.
  5. (abbreviation, initialism, uncountable) Initialism of relevant alternatives theory.

Verb (4) capitalized: RAT

RAT (third-person singular simple present RATs, present participle RATing, simple past and past participle RATed or RAT'd)

  1. (transitive) To hack someone with a remote-access Trojan.

Proper noun capitalized: Rat

Rat

  1. The first of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar.

Also used as

rat is also the ellipsis of muskrat.

rat meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

rat in Hindi

rodent
चूहा cūhā, मूश mūś

rat in Tamil

rodent
எலி eli

rat in Marathi

rodent
उंदिर undir

rat in Urdu

rodent
چُوها, مُوش mūś
More languagesFewer languages
rat in Bengali
ইঁদুর ĩdur
rat in Telugu
ఎలుక eluka
rat in Malayalam
എലി eli
rat in Kannada
ಇಲಿ ili
rat in Punjabi
ਚੂਹਾ cūhā, ਮੂਸਾ mūsā
rat in Gujarati
ઉંદર undar
rat in Odia
ଇନ୍ଦୁର indura, କୁନ୍ଦୁ kundu
rat in Sanskrit
मूष् mūṣ, आखु ākhu
rat in Sinhala
ලොකු මීයා loku mīyā
rat in Assamese
এন্দুৰ endur
rat in Nepali
चूहा cūhā, मूस mūs
rat in Pashto
سويکه soyáka, مږه mᶕɀa, ګنډېرڅه gnaḍercá
rat in Tagalog
daga
rat in Arabic
جُرَذ juraḏ, فَأْر faʔr, جرز gerz, فار fār
rat in Malay
tikus
rat in Indonesian
tikus
rat in Persian
مُوش mūš, موش muš
rat in Thai
หนู nǔu
rat in Vietnamese
chuột
rat in Myanmar
ကြွက် krwak
Kashmiri
گَگُر gagur

Examples of rat in a sentence

  • What a rat, leaving us stranded here!
  • He’s more a man than any pair of rats of you in this here house.1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:
  • "Ah, so you damn rat, this is a put-up job eh?"1936, F.J. Thwaites, chapter XVIII, in The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards, published 1940, page 185:
  • With regards to the testing of his product, the initial blood analysis had come back confirming huge, distinctive nutritional superiority for Stewart's military ration pack.2014, John, Buffoon, page 243:

All 40 example sentences with rat

Synonyms of rat

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of rat

Forms of rat

Noun
pluralrats
pluralRATs
Verb
third-person singular presentrats
present participleratting
past participleratted
pastratted
third-person singular presentRATs
present participleRATing
past participleRATed
pastRATed

Plural of rat: rats

Origin of rat

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. Cognates 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...

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.

Words formed from rat

Phrases with rat

151 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with rat

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about rat

What does rat mean?
Rat means 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.
What is rat in Hindi?
Rat in Hindi is चूहा (cūhā), मूश (mūś). See Rat meaning in Hindi.
How do you use rat in a sentence?
What a rat, leaving us stranded here!
What part of speech is rat?
Rat can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce rat?
Rat is pronounced /ɹæt/ (UK).
What is the plural of rat?
The plural of rat is rats.

Words near rat in the dictionary

  1. rasuls
  2. rasure
  3. rasures
  4. rasvumite
  5. Rasŏn
  6. rat
  7. rat arsed
  8. rat bastard
  9. rat bastards
  10. rat bastid
  11. rat bastids

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rat (page history and authors); RAT (page history and authors); 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: en-us-rat.ogg, En-uk-a rat.ogg.

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