- a small animal with a long tail, that looks like a large mouse, usually considered a pest (= an animal which is disliked because it destroys food or spreads disease)
- rat poison
- The police are all over town. He’s caught, like a rat in a trap.
Extra ExamplesTopics Animalsb2- Rats had gnawed through the wires.
- The dog was a useful rat catcher in the warehouse.
- a rat-infested cellar
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- black
- brown
- lab
- …
- scurry
- scuttle
- gnaw
- …
- catcher
- droppings
- poison
- …
- (informal, disapproving) an unpleasant person, especially somebody who treats their partner or friends badly, for example by leaving them or cheating them
- You mean he just walked out on her after fifteen years? What a rat!
Word OriginOld English ræt, probably of Romance origin; reinforced in Middle English by Old French rat. The verb dates from the early 19th cent.
Idioms
See rat in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary(like rats) deserting/leaving a sinking ship
- (humorous, disapproving) used to talk about people who leave an organization, a company, etc. that is having difficulties, without caring about the people who are left
smell a rat
- (informal) to suspect that something is wrong about a situation
Check pronunciation:
rat