rat
A small animal like a big mouse with a long tail that often lives near people, sometimes in dirty places or in laboratories.
A small to medium-sized rodent with a long tail, often living in cities, sewers, or buildings and sometimes kept for laboratory use or as a pet.
An insult for a person who is bad, mean, or cannot be trusted.
An insulting word for a person who is considered very unpleasant, mean, or not to be trusted.
A person who tells secret information about their group to the police or another enemy group.
Someone who betrays their group by secretly giving information to the police, authorities, or an enemy, especially in a criminal or political context.
To tell the police or another enemy secret information about someone, so that person gets in trouble.
To betray a person or group by secretly telling the police, authorities, or an enemy about what they have done.
- Base: rat
- Plural: rats
- Base: rat
- 3rd Person Singular: rats
- Present Participle: ratting
- Past: ratted
- Irregular present participle: ratting Verb
- Irregular past: ratted Verb
dirty rat
1very untrustworthy person (insult)
A strong insult for someone who is very bad, mean, or not loyal.
- You dirty rat, you lied to me again!
- He called the thief a dirty rat as the police took him away.
lab rat
1subject used for experiments
An animal, usually a rat, or informally a person, that is used for tests and experiments in a laboratory.
- The new drug was first tried on lab rats.
- I feel like a lab rat with all these medical tests.
like a drowned rat
1completely soaked and messy
Looking very wet and messy, usually after heavy rain or falling into water.
- She came in from the storm looking like a drowned rat.
- After the kids played in the rain, they all looked like drowned rats.
like rats leaving a sinking ship
1abandon a failing cause
To leave a project, company, or group very quickly when it starts to fail, in order to protect yourself.
- When the company started to go bankrupt, employees left like rats leaving a sinking ship.
- Politicians deserted the scandal-hit leader like rats leaving a sinking ship.
pack rat
1person who keeps too many things
A person who keeps many things and almost never throws anything away, even when they do not need them.
- My dad is such a pack rat; he still has magazines from the 1980s.
- Being a pack rat, she keeps every receipt and ticket stub.
rat on (someone)
1inform on or betray someone
To tell the police, a teacher, a boss, or another power about what someone did, so that person gets in trouble.
- No one wants to rat on their coworkers, even if they break the rules.
- He finally ratted on the gang after they threatened his family.
rat out (someone)
1reveal someone’s wrongdoing
To tell other people, often people in power, that someone did something bad or secret.
- She ratted him out to the principal for bullying another student.
- Who ratted us out to the boss about leaving early?
rat race
1stressful, competitive modern life
A busy, stressful way of life where people work very hard and compete all the time, usually in big cities or offices.
- After ten years in the rat race, he moved to the countryside.
- Many people feel trapped in the corporate rat race.
rat’s nest
1very messy tangle
A place or group of things that is very messy and tangled, like many wires or very messy hair.
- The cables behind the TV are a real rat’s nest.
- Her hair was a rat’s nest after the long flight.
smell a rat
1Suspect dishonesty or wrongdoing
To think that something is wrong or someone is doing something bad or dishonest.
- When she arrived so late, I began to smell a rat.
- I smell a rat—these numbers are too good to be true.
- I smelled a rat when he offered such a low price.
- The police began to smell a rat when his story kept changing.