Word.ws English Dictionary

Ratboy

Ratboy proper noun: the fictional character Alex Krycek from The X-Files.

Proper noun

Ratboy

  1. (The X-Files fandom slang) The fictional character Alex Krycek from The X-Files.
    • Do you know who Ratboy is?1996, Susan J. Clerc, “DDEB, GATB, MPPB, and Ratboy”, in David Lavery, Angela Hague, Marla Cartwright, editors, Deny All knowledge: Reading the X-files, page 37
    • But this Krycek—self-consciously multivoiced, focalizing as a fan reader through his obsession with Mulder, Ratboy yet sympathetically damaged—is carefully constructed as a recognizable source character interpreted in a new light.2014, Deborah Kaplan, “Construction of Fan Fiction Character Through Narrative”, in Karen Hellekson, Kristina Busse, editors, Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet, page 143

Origin of Ratboy

From rat + boy. Coined by fans as a humorous reference to the character's amoral and duplicitous nature. Popularized on alt.tv.x-files, the main Usenet newsgroup for the show, where it is first attested in 1994.

Questions about Ratboy

What does Ratboy mean?
Ratboy means the fictional character Alex Krycek from The X-Files.
What part of speech is Ratboy?
Ratboy is a proper noun.

Words near Ratboy in the dictionary

  1. ratbag
  2. ratbaggeries
  3. ratbaggery
  4. ratbags
  5. ratborne
  6. Ratboy
  7. Ratby
  8. ratcastle
  9. ratcastles
  10. ratcatcher
  11. ratcatchers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Ratboy (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: “Ratboy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ratboy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.