ratty
/ˈɹæti/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.47 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Resembling or characteristic of a rat; ratlike.
adj
Crazy, mad; ridiculous; slightly strange, eccentric; also (followed by about, on, or over), attracted to, infatuated with.
Australian usage; Informal
noun
Synonym of knock down ginger (“prank of knocking on a front door and running away”).
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "The Marcher lord was still clad in his ratty black cloak and dented breastplate with its chipped enamel lightning."
- "I was having exactly that thought on a ratty mock-leather couch in Islington."
- "He got bad, he got ratty, he would take it out on people around him. He was mean when it turned against him."
Etymology
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɹæti/
- British English: /ˈɹæti/