ratting

ratting is the present participle and gerund of rat.

Noun

ratting (usually uncountable, plural rattings)

(archaic, usually) The blood sport of setting a dog upon rats confined in a pit to see how many he will kill in a given time.
- Henry Mayhew, the nineteenth-century chronicler of London's underworld, described the frenzied activity of one ratting contest. A terrier — the best of ratting dogs — was placed into a pit with 50 rats.1993, Ronald H. Fritze, James Stuart Olson, Randy Roberts, Reflections on World Civilization: A Reader, volume 2, page 102
- Bear and bull baiting, dog fights, cockfighting, ratting, and other blood sports were attacked as un-Christian […]2001, Colin D. Howell, Blood, Sweat and Cheers: Sport and the Making of Modern Canada
Synonyms:

rat-baiting
(usually) A vocation involving the pest control of rats, typically using a working terrier.
(usually) Desertion of one's principles.
(usually) Working as a scab, against trade union policies.

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

(usually) To hunt or kill rats.
(intransitive) To betray a political party, cause or principle; to betray someone, to desert a person or thing.
(informal, intransitive) To work as a scab, going against trade union policies.
(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
(intransitive, with on or out) To inform on someone; to betray someone to the police or authorities.
- He ratted on his coworker.

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

(regional) To scratch or score.
- He ratted a vertical line on his face with a pocket knife.

plural	rattings

What does ratting mean?: Ratting means the blood sport of setting a dog upon rats confined in a pit to see how many he will kill in a given time.
What is ratting the present participle and gerund of?: Ratting is the present participle and gerund of rat.
What part of speech is ratting?: Ratting is a noun.
What is the plural of ratting?: The plural of ratting is rattings.

Adapted from Wiktionary: ratting (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: 2026-09-02

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