Word.ws English Dictionary

rat fink

rat fink is the alternative form of ratfink.

Meaning of ratfink

Noun

ratfink (plural ratfinks)

  1. (Canada, US) An informer or spy; a traitor.
    • The authors have facetiously labeled the contemplated musical as 'Ratfink', after the name of its central character, James J. Ratfink. Its title is not meant in a derogatory sense.1961 May 9, Louis Calta, “New Show Listed by Jones, Schmidt”, in The New York Times, volume 110, number 37726, page 43
    Synonyms:
    rat, fink
  2. (Canada, US, also, attributive) A dislikable or contemptible person.
    • Maxwell—or Maxie, as he was familiarly called by his once and former rat fink girlfriend—lived in a six-story walkup on a narrow street in Calm's Point, […]1999, Ed McBain [pseudonym; Evan Hunter], chapter 6, in The Last Dance: A Novel of the 87th Precinct (87th Precinct Mystery; 50), New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 150
    Synonyms:
    rat, fink
  3. (Canada, US) A strikebreaker.
    Synonyms:
    rat, fink, scab

See all 4 meanings of ratfink

Forms of rat fink

Noun
pluralrat finks
Verb
third-person singular presentrat finks
present participlerat finking
past participlerat finked
pastrat finked

Questions about rat fink

What is rat fink the alternative form of?
Rat fink is the alternative form of ratfink.

Words near rat fink in the dictionary

  1. rat chinchilla
  2. rat chinchillas
  3. rat dog
  4. rat dogs
  5. rat fever
  6. rat fink
  7. rat finked
  8. rat finking
  9. rat finks
  10. rat flood
  11. rat floods

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rat fink (page history and authors); ratfink (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.

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