rat (redirected from ratting)

look like a drowned rat

to be very wet, especially because you have been in heavy rain. I had to cycle home in the rain and came in looking like a drowned rat.

See also: drown, like, look

a pack rat (American)

someone who collects things that they do not need. For me there could be nothing worse than living with a pack rat.

See also: pack

a rat fink (American, informal)

an extremely unpleasant person, or someone who has given secret information about you to the police. If I find the rat fink who informed on me, he won't live long enough to do it again.

a rat race

an unpleasant way in which people compete against each other at work in order to succeed. I'd love to get out of the rat race and buy a house in some remote part of the countryside.

See also: race

rat-arsed (British, very informal, American, very informal)

very drunk. They came home completely rat-arsed.

smell a rat

to start to believe that something is wrong about a situation, especially that someone is being dishonest. She smelled a rat when she phoned him at the office where he was supposed to be working late and he wasn't there.

See also: smell

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smell a rat

to believe something is wrong. When my husband started working late three or four times a week, I smelled a rat.

See also: smell