Wiktionary

ratty

English edit

WOTD – 13 March 2022

Pronunciation edit

Etymology 1 edit

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

Adjective edit

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 edit
Translations edit
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 edit

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

Further reading edit

Etymology 2 edit

Noun edit

ratty (uncountable)

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

Anagrams edit

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