rat — OET · Shobdo

rat

noun

1 informal derogatory her rat of a husband cheated her:

scoundrel, wretch, rogue;

informal beast, pig, creep, louse, snake, snake in the grass, bum, lowlife, scumbag, heel, skunk, weasel;

British, informal scrote;

North American, informal rat fink;

Irish, informal sleeveen;

Australian, informal dingo;

derogatory bastard, dog, dirty dog;

derogatory , informal swine;

informal , dated cad;

British, informal , dated rotter, bounder;

vulgar slang shit.

2 informal the most famous rat in mob history:

informer, betrayer, stool pigeon;

informal snitch, finger, squealer, nose;

British, informal grass, supergrass, nark, snout;

Scottish, & Northern Irish, informal tout;

North American, informal fink, stoolie;

Australian, informal fizgig, pimp, shelf;

archaic intelligencer, beagle.

exclamation

informal

Rats! I've lost my ticket!:

damn, damnation, blast, hell, heck, Gordon Bennett;

British bother;

informal drat, sugar, botheration, flip, flipping heck/hell;

British, informal dash, blooming heck/hell, blinking heck/hell;

North American, informal doggone it, shucks, shoot, tarnation;

Indian, informal arré;

dated confound it, pish.

verb informal

□ rat on

1 we may have been poor but ratting on our friends was something we didn't do:

inform on/against, betray, be disloyal to, be unfaithful to, break one's promise to, break faith with, sell out, stab someone in the back;

informal tell on, sell down the river, blow the whistle on, squeal on, peach on;

British, informal grass on, shop, stitch up, do the dirty on;

North American, informal rat out, finger, drop a/the dime on;

Australian, informal pimp on, pool, put someone's pot on.

2 he accused the government of ratting on an earlier pledge:

break, renege on, go back on, back out of, default on, welsh on;

break one's word.

rat Oxford Dictionary of English