Rat
[ræt]
Definition
(noun.) any of various long-tailed rodents similar to but larger than a mouse.
(noun.) a pad (usually made of hair) worn as part of a woman's coiffure.
(verb.) catch rats, especially with dogs.
(verb.) give (hair) the appearance of being fuller by using a rat.
(verb.) employ scabs or strike breakers in.
(verb.) desert one's party or group of friends, for example, for one's personal advantage.
Typed by Jeanette--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) One of several species of small rodents of the genus Mus and allied genera, larger than mice, that infest houses, stores, and ships, especially the Norway, or brown, rat (M. decumanus), the black rat (M. rattus), and the roof rat (M. Alexandrinus). These were introduced into America from the Old World.
(n.) A round and tapering mass of hair, or similar material, used by women to support the puffs and rolls of their natural hair.
(n.) One who deserts his party or associates; hence, in the trades, one who works for lower wages than those prescribed by a trades union.
(v. i.) In English politics, to desert one's party from interested motives; to forsake one's associates for one's own advantage; in the trades, to work for less wages, or on other conditions, than those established by a trades union.
(v. i.) To catch or kill rats.
Editor: Susanna
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. n. Desert one's party (from interested motives), bolt.
Editor: Luke
Definition
n. an animal of the genus Mus larger and more destructive than the mouse: a renegade turncoat: a workman who accepts lower than the authorised wages who declines to join in a strike or who takes a striker's work: a roll of anything used to puff out the hair which is turned over it.—v.i. (coll.) to desert one's party and join their opponents for gain or power: to take lower than current wages to refuse to join in a strike to take a striker's place:—pr.p. rat′ting; pa.p. and pa.t. rat′ted.—ns. Rat′-catch′er one whose business it is to catch rats; Rat′-catch′ing; Rat′-hole (print.) a pigeon-hole; Rat′-pit an enclosure where rats are killed; Rat′-poi′son a preparation of arsenic; Rat's′-bane poison for rats: arsenious acid; Rat′-tail an excrescence growing on a horse's leg.—adj. Rat′-tailed having a tail like a rat.—ns. Rat′ter a terrier which catches rats; Rat′tery apostasy; Rat′ting deserting one's principles: working for less than the usual prices: setting a dog to kill rats in a pit; Rat′-trap a trap for catching rats.—Rat-tailed larva the larva of certain syrphid flies.—Smell a rat to have a suspicion.
Edited by Abraham
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream of rats, denotes that you will be deceived, and injured by your neighbors. Quarrels with your companions is also foreboded. To catch rats, means you will scorn the baseness of others, and worthily outstrip your enemies. To kill one, denotes your victory in any contest. See Mice.
Edited by Gene
Examples
- Leave this island before nightfall, or, by heaven, I will have you drowned like the rat you are! Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- They were so placed that when a rat passed over them the fore feet on the one plate and the hind feet on the other completed the circuit and the rat departed this life, electrocuted. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Well, now, let us see where this rat has been lurking. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- What about the other fortnight that you've left me lying here, like a sick rat in his hole? Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- Look at the rat! Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- And yet he was somewhere indomitable and separate, like a quick, vital rat. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- The rat-faced one now called to the men who had remained at the boat, and they came slowly up the bank carrying picks and shovels. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- Rats were hunted eagerly; cowhide was gnawed and sawdust devoured to stay the pangs of hunger. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- The rats will devour the mixture and then drink, whereupon the plaster, brought into contact with the water, will become solid and like a stone in their stomachs, which will cause their deaths. William K. David. Secrets of Wise Men, Chemists and Great Physicians.
- Can rats walk down stairs, and come walking through the entry, and open a door when you've locked it and set a chair against it? Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- Monsieur the Marquis ran his eyes over them all, as if they had been mere rats come out of their holes. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- Killing rats was I? William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- I wish you had been poked into cells and black holes, and run over by rats and spiders and beetles. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- I desired a lock for my door, to prevent rats and mice from coming in. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- Mr. Pitt had very nearly made him; but he ratted always at the wrong time. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
Checker: Mara