rat

Meanings

Noun

• A medium-sized rodent belonging to the genus Rattus.
• 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.
• A person who is known for betrayal; a scoundrel; a quisling.
• An informant or snitch.
• A scab: a worker who acts against trade union policies.
• A person who routinely spends time at a particular location.
• A wad of shed hair used as part of a hairstyle.
• A roll of material used to puff out the hair, which is turned over it.
• Vagina.
• A scratch or a score.
• A place in the sea with rapid currents and crags where a ship is likely to be torn apart in stormy weather.
• A ration.

Verb

• To betray a person or party, especially by telling their secret to an authority or an enemy; to turn someone in.
• To work as a scab, going against trade union policies.
• To kill rats.
• To scratch or score.
• To tear, rip, rend.
• Damn, drat, blast; used in oaths.

Related

Similar words

• traitor (see for more synonyms)
• stool pigeon
• tell on, to finger or put the finger on, bewray

Origin

• From Middle English ratte, rat, rotte, from Old English rætt, from Proto-Germanic *rattaz, *rattō (compare West Frisian rôt, Dutch rat), of uncertain origin, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *reh₁d-. 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.^{[citation needed]}
• 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-.
• From Middle English ratten, further etymology unknown. Compare Middle High German ratzen ("to scratch; rasp; tear"). Could be related to write. See also rit.