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)

Resembling or characteristic of a rat; ratlike.
Synonym: rattish
Infested with rats.
(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 August 8, George R[aymond] R[ichard] Martin, “Arya [Stark]”, in A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire; 3), London: Voyager, →ISBN, page 443:
    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 UK) 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

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

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

Etymology 2

Noun

ratty (uncountable)

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

Anagrams

attry, tarty

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

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