Word.ws English Dictionary

ratty

Syllables: rat·tyUK/ˈɹæti//ˈɹæti/

ratty adjective: resembling or characteristic of a rat; ratlike.

Adjective

ratty (comparative rattier, superlative rattiest)

  1. Resembling or characteristic of a rat; ratlike.
    Synonyms:
    rattish
  2. Infested with rats.
  3. (figuratively, informal) In poor condition or repair.
    • We got an old tin lantern, and a butcher knife without any handle, and a bran-new Barlow knife worth two bits in any store, and a lot of tallow candles, and a tin candlestick, and a gourd, and a tin cup, and a ratty old bed-quilt off the bed, […] and just as we were leaving I found a tolerable good...1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter IX, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 78
    • The Marcher lord was still clad in his ratty black cloak and dented breastplate with its chipped enamel lightning.2000 August 8, George R[aymond] R[ichard] Martin, “Arya [Stark]”, in A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire; 3), London: Voyager, →ISBN, page 443
  4. (Australia, figuratively, informal) Crazy, mad; ridiculous; slightly strange, eccentric; also (followed by about, on, or over), attracted to, infatuated with.
  5. (figuratively, informal) Annoyed, bad-tempered, irritable.
    • He got bad, he got ratty, he would take it out on people around him. He was mean when it turned against him.2009, Ian McDonald, River of Gods

Noun

ratty (uncountable)

  1. Synonym of knock down ginger (“prank of knocking on a front door and running away”).

ratty meaning in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada

ratty in Tamil

எலிபோன்ற, எலிகளாற் பீடிக்கப்பட்ட, துயர மிகக் நிலையில், உள்ள, சிடுசிடுப்பு வாய்ந்த, எளிதிற் சினங் கொள்ளுகிற

ratty in Malayalam

irritable, irascible, bad-tempered
വെറി പിടിച്ച, പെട്ടെന്നു കോപിക്കുന്ന, കോപശീല, വേഗം ദേഷ്യം വരുന്ന, മുൻകോപിയായ, ക്ഷിപ്രകോപം വരുന്ന

ratty in Kannada

ಸಿಡುಕಿನ ಸ್ವಭಾವದ, ಮುಂಗೋಪದ, ಕುಪಿತನಾಗುವ, ಬೇಗ ಸಿಟ್ಟು ಮಾಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವ

Synonyms of ratty

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of ratty

Forms of ratty

comparativerattier
superlativerattiest

Origin of ratty

From rat + -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of’ forming adjective).

Words formed from ratty

Words that rhyme with ratty

6 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about ratty

What does ratty mean?
Ratty means resembling or characteristic of a rat; ratlike.
What is ratty in Tamil?
Ratty in Tamil is எலிபோன்ற, எலிகளாற் பீடிக்கப்பட்ட, துயர மிகக் நிலையில். See Ratty meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is ratty?
Ratty can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce ratty?
Ratty is pronounced /ˈɹæti/ (UK).

Words near ratty in the dictionary

  1. rattrap
  2. rattraps
  3. Rattray
  4. Rattue
  5. Rattues
  6. ratty
  7. ratu
  8. ratus
  9. Ratuș
  10. ratwa
  11. ratwood

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ratty (page history and authors); ratty (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ratty (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); ratty (Kannada Wiktionary) (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-ratty.ogg.

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