rat

Meaning

Noun

1. A medium-sized rodent belonging to the genus Rattus.
2. (informal) Any of the numerous members of several rodent families (e.g. voles and mice) that resemble true rats in appearance, usually having a pointy snout, a long, bare tail, and body length greater than about 12 cm, or 5 inches.
3. (informal) A person who is known for betrayal; a scoundrel; a quisling.
4. (informal) An informant or snitch.
5. (informal) A scab: a worker who acts against trade union policies.
6. (slang) A person who routinely spends time at a particular location.
7. A wad of shed hair used as part of a hairstyle.
8. A roll of material used to puff out the hair, which is turned over it.
9. (slang) Vagina.
10. (informal) Short for muskrat.

Verb

1. To hunt or kill rats.
2. To betray a political party, cause or principle; to betray someone, to desert a person or thing.
3. (informal) To work as a scab, going against trade union policies.
4. To backcomb (hair).
5. To inform on someone; to betray someone to the police or authorities.

Verb

1. To scratch or score.
2. (obsolete) To tear, rip, rend.
3. Damn, drat, blast; used in oaths.

Concepts

rat

mouse

rodent

snitch

blackleg

scab

stinker

betrayer

denounce

fink

skunk

villain

betray

grass

shit

shop

stag

tell on

give away

blabber

informer

squealer

bum

crumb

dirty dog

git

lowlife

puke

rotter

scum bag

so-and-so

stinkpot

strikebreaker

size of a gopher

Cavia porcellus

guinea pig

mole

musk-rat

ratty

bushrat

bolt

defect

fall away

vole

meat

shrew

common rat

bruit

gossip

pass around

schmoose

schmooze

shmoose

shmooze

tattle

unwrap

marsupial rat

Ne

Nezumi

leak

bastard

dishonest person

field mouse

rat on

sing

squeal

mouse mice

hoodlum

rascal

roughneck

scallywag

swine

inform

peach

kangaroo rat

bush rat

mole rat

computer mouse

house mouse

scum

skim

soapsuds

spume

black rat

brown rat

sewer rat

mongoose

heedless

moles

squirrels

bandicoot

water rat

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ɹæt/

Etymology

From Middle English ratte, rat, rotte, from Old English rætt, from Proto-West Germanic *ratt, from Proto-Germanic *rattaz, *rattō (compare West Frisian rôt, Dutch rat), of uncertain origin, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *reh₁d- (“to scrape, scratch, gnaw”). However, the rat may have been unknown in Northern Europe in antiquity, and the Proto-Germanic word may have referred to a different animal; see *rattaz for more. Attestation of this family of words begins in the 12th century.
Some of the Germanic cognates show considerable consonant variation, e.g. Middle Low German ratte, radde; Middle High German rate, ratte, ratze. The irregularity may be symptomatic of a late dispersal of the word, although Kroonen accounts for it with a Proto-Germanic stem *raþō nom., *ruttaz gen., showing both ablaut and a Kluge's law alternation, with the variation arising from varying remodellings in the descendants. Kroonen states that this requires a Proto-Indo-European etymon in final *t and is incompatible with the usual derivation from Proto-Indo-European *reh₁d- (“to scrape, scratch, gnaw”).