ratty

English

WOTD – 13 March 2022

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɹæti/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɹæti/, [-ɾi]

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æti
• Hyphenation: rat‧ty

Etymology 1

From rat +‎ -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of’ forming adjective).^[1]

Adjective

ratty (comparative rattier, superlative rattiest)

1. Resembling or characteristic of a rat; ratlike.

   Synonym: rattish

2. Infested with rats.
3. (figuratively, informal)
   1. In poor condition or repair.

      Synonyms: battered, tattered, tatty, torn, worn out

      • 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter IX, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 78:

        We got an old tin lantern, and a butcher knife without any handle, and a bran-new Barlow knife worth two bits in any store, and a lot of tallow candles, and a tin candlestick, and a gourd, and a tin cup, and a ratty old bed-quilt off the bed, […] and just as we were leaving I found a tolerable good curry-comb, and Jim he found a ratty old fiddle-bow, and a wooden leg.

      • 2000, George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords, Bantam, published 2011, page 535:

        The Marcher lord was still clad in his ratty black cloak and dented breastplate with its chipped enamel lightning.

      • 2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador, published 2007, page 80:

        I was having exactly that thought on a ratty mock-leather couch in Islington.

   2. (Australia) Crazy, mad; ridiculous; slightly strange, eccentric; also (followed by about, on, or over), attracted to, infatuated with.
   3. (originally British) Annoyed, bad-tempered, irritable.

      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:annoyed, Thesaurus:irritable

      • 2009, Ian McDonald, River of Gods:

        He got bad, he got ratty, he would take it out on people around him. He was mean when it turned against him.

Derived terms

• rattily
• rattiness

Translations

similar to a rat — see also ratlike

Romanian: șobolănos Russian: крыси́ный (ru) (krysínyj)

infested with rats

in poor condition or repair — see tattered

crazy, mad — see crazy,‎ mad

ridiculous — see ridiculous

slightly strange — see eccentric

attracted to, infatuated with — see infatuated

annoyed, bad-tempered, irritable — see annoyed

References

1. “ratty, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2021; “ratty, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

• rat on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

Noun

ratty (uncountable)

1. Synonym of knock down ginger (“prank of knocking on a front door and running away”)

Anagrams

• attry, tarty