Word.ws English Dictionary

water rat

water rat noun: any of various aquatic or semi-aquatic rodents from Florida and southern Georgia, especially Neofiber alleni; the muskrat.

Noun

water rat (plural water rats)

  1. (US) Any of various aquatic or semi-aquatic rodents from Florida and southern Georgia, especially Neofiber alleni; the muskrat.
    • Otters are even harder to spot; the coypu, a North American water rat, is more commonly seen.2004, James McConnachie, Rough Guide to the Loire, page 43
  2. (Australia) A water mouse, especially, the rakali, Hydromys chrysogaster.
    • "There [...] you will find the water-hole that is sacred to Biggoon, the giant water rat."1943, H. Lorna Bingham, The Lost Tribe, Sydney: Winn and Co., page 11, column 1
  3. (informal) A European water vole (Arvicola amphibius, formerly Arvicola terrestris).
  4. (US, slang) A petty thief or waterfront ruffian.
  5. (slang) A person fond of water sports.
  6. (Australia, slang) A member of the water police.

water rat meaning in Tamil and Kannada

water rat in Tamil

இதுவும் ஒரு சிற்றினம் ஆகும்

water rat in Kannada

ಜಲಮೂಷಿಕ, ನೀರಿಲಿ

Forms of water rat

pluralwater rats
alternative formwaterrat
alternative formwater-rat

Origin of water rat

From water + rat. Compare Saterland Frisian Woaterrotte, West Frisian wetterrôt, Dutch waterrat, German Low German Waterrötte, Waterrött, German Wasserratte, Danish vandrotte, Swedish vattenråtta, Icelandic vatnsrotta.

Words formed from water rat

Questions about water rat

What does water rat mean?
Water rat means any of various aquatic or semi-aquatic rodents from Florida and southern Georgia, especially Neofiber alleni; the muskrat.
What is water rat in Tamil?
Water rat in Tamil is இதுவும் ஒரு சிற்றினம் ஆகும். See Water rat meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is water rat?
Water rat is a noun.
What is the plural of water rat?
The plural of water rat is water rats.

Words near water rat in the dictionary

  1. water races
  2. water rail
  3. water rails
  4. water ram
  5. water rams
  6. water rat
  7. water rats
  8. water repellent
  9. water repellents
  10. water ribbons
  11. water right

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: water rat (page history and authors); water rat (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); water rat (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-au-water rat.ogg.

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