Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use rat in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

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. Example: “What a rat, leaving us stranded here!”

Examples of rat by meaning

nounA 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

nounA person who is known for betrayal.

  • What a rat, leaving us stranded here!
  • "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

nounA 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.

verbTo 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

verbTo inform on someone; to betray someone to the police or authorities.

  • He ratted on his coworker.
  • He is going to rat us out!

verbTo scratch or score.

  • He ratted a vertical line on his face with a pocket knife.

verbTo tear, rip, rend.

  • Ratted to shreds.

verbDamn, drat, blast; used in oaths.

  • “But, rat me, sir,” cried Foster in bewilderment, “tis too generous—'pon honour it is.1904, Rafael Sabatini, chapter XXVI, in The Tavern Knight

More sentences with rat

  • The lab rat was programmed to press the lever when the bell rang.From the entry program
  • This box contained rat poison, now it contains a dead rat.From the entry contained
  • Extreme rainfall events predict irruptions of rat plagues in central Australia.From the entry irruption
  • We saw a rat scuttering into a dark corner as we turned on the lights.From the entry scutter
  • This Roblox external I downloaded just flashed command prompts, I probably just got ratted by some e-gangster.From the entry e-gangster
  • Only licensed exterminators can purchase rat poison in this state.From the entry licensed
  • The daily rat race is soul-destroying: you soon give up all aspirations and just try to survive the boredom.From the entry soul-destroying
  • Don't go ratting to the police about what happened.From the entry ratting
  • The rat is a peridomestic animal.From the entry peridomestic
  • It all led to one conclusion: A man can be good-looking while also giving rat energy.2024 June 14, Anthony Robledo, “Who are hot rodent men of the summer? Meet the internet's favorite type of celebrity”, in USA Today…. From the entry hot rodent man
  • The tabloids branded him forevermore as the “love rat,” and Pasternak was excoriated for peddling mawkish fantasy.2022 April 5, Tina Brown, “How Princess Diana’s Dance With the Media Impacted William and Harry”, in Vanity Fair. From the entry excoriate
  • A large roof rat ran from the overflowing bins and disappeared under the house.2021, Ruth Ozeki, The Book of Form and Emptiness, Canongate Books (2022), page 308. From the entry roof rat
  • That seems to be a rat, proof that cats guarded ailourophobic Medieval humans from the plague.2021 December 7, u/catalyptic, “meow_irl”, in r/MEOW_IRL (Reddit post), archived from the original on 07 Dec 2021. From the entry ailourophobic
  • Rat salami became a delicacy, and butchered cats were sold as "gutter rabbits.”2019, Kathleen Sears, Socialism 101, page 76. From the entry gutter rabbit
  • Interestingly, torpedoes are also reported to appear transiently during development in rat cerebellum.2016 November 2, Lovisa Ljungberg, Daneck Lang-Ouellette, Angela Yang, Sriram Jayabal, Sabrina Quilez, Alanna J. Watt, “Transient…. From the entry torpedo
  • Researchers must learn to speak “ratese” with rat subjects or “monkeyese” with monkeys.2016, Bryan Kolb, Ian Q[uentin] Whishaw, G. Campbell Teskey, “How Do We Study the Brain’s Structures and Functions?”, in An Introduction…. From the entry monkeyese
  • After four to eight days of incubation, this biolung was grafted on to a rat.2015 August 2, J.-F. Stoltz et al., “Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine: Myth or Reality of the 21th^([sic]) Century”, in Stem Cells…. From the entry biolung
  • Mitch would find the rat—or ratette—and move on without anyone knowing.2015, Angi Morgan, The Ranger, →ISBN, page 14. From the entry ratette
  • There are also two species of chinchilla rat, agile rock climbers that ascend bushes when feeding.2013, Tim Burford, chapter I, in Chile Highlights, page 39. From the entry chinchilla rat
  • As a graduate student, she loved being a “lab rat,” Dr.2013 April 8, Denise Grady, “Profiles in Science: Charting Her Own Course”, in New York Times, retrieved 20 Apr 2015. From the entry lab rat
  • Jake felt that rat feeling again and the gut shot realization that he'd gotten Greg killed.2012, Kristina Wright, Dangerous Curves, →ISBN. From the entry gut shot
  • She began smelling a rat (this being a land managing agency, a woodrat).2011, Russell L. Kaldenberg, “Being a US Government Cultural Resource Manager”, in Thomas F. King, editor, A Companion to Cultural…. From the entry smell a rat
  • If the rat didn't move natantly, it was forced to swim by the stick.2011, Xiaoting Luo, Shumei Li, Sisi Li, Liang Xiong, Minghua Dong, “Relationship between protective effect of hesperidin extraction on…. From the entry natantly
  • For the average gym rat, Anthony recommends being wary of longer-than-necessary rest periods.2010, Eric Velazquez, “Power Pairings”, in Reps!, volume 17, number 84. From the entry gym rat
  • He would be killed on sight like the cheese eating rat he was.2010, Daniell Harshaw, Bulletproof Love, page 184. From the entry cheese eating
  • The combination of ketamine and acetylpromazine, a phenothiazine tranquilizer, produces light surgical anesthesia in most rat strains.2008, Yanlin Wang-Fischer, Manual of Stroke Models in Rats, page 74. From the entry acetylpromazine
  • "Fetched us a good haul of sparklies last night, did our young Twist," said the rat.2008, Heather Vogel Frederick, Goldwhiskers, page 27. From the entry sparklies
  • His wife smelled a rat and found out his affair with his graduate student assistant, Rosalie Rayner.2007, Alex Boese, Elephants on Acid: And Other Bizarre Experiments, Orlando, Fla.: Harcourt, →ISBN. From the entry smell a rat
  • A family member ratted me out and my little, white-haired mother went snake on me.2007 April 18, Kim Ross-Polito, “Sidelines”, in The Crestline Advocate, number 29, Crestline, OH, page 2. From the entry go snake

Meaning of rat

  1. 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.
  2. noun A medium-sized rodent belonging to the genus Rattus.
  3. noun A person who is known for betrayal.

Full definition of rat

Questions about rat in a sentence

How do you use rat in a sentence?
Rat is used as a noun and verb. For example: “What a rat, leaving us stranded here!”
What is a short sentence with rat?
“Ratted to shreds.”
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.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rat (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use rat in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/rat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.