Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A rattling sound or effect, as from the beating of a drum.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a series of short sharp taps (as made by strokes on a drum or knocks on a door)
Examples
“Adapted in 1931 from a Broadway farce by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, this rat-a-tat yarn established the newspaper reporter as a rough-and-ready huckster, cousin to the Chicago bootlegger, always happy to break the rules to get the scoop.”
“Neither did his multi-nozzle flame thrower, even though he'd rigged it to rat-a-tat a catchy beat.”
The Wall Street Journal: Those Who Like to Putter Around With Art Give Mini Golf a Shot
“His delivery manages to be both distracted and pithy rather than rat-a-tat.”
The Huffington Post: Kim Morgan: For the Love of (Film Noir): Nightfall
“Vincenti atoned when the ball squirted to him from a remarkable rat-a-tat of shots and blocks.”
“It's a pretty generous two stars out of four, but at least Woody Allen's piece has some rat-a-tat humor.”
The Huffington Post: Michael Giltz: Theater: Woody Allen Plus Elaine May Plus Ethan Coen = Meh
“Rewrite a bit of dialogue in “rat-a-tat” fashion-short, sharp exchanges?”
“The verse went on, building to a glorious burst of sound, guitar bright and dirty at the same time, the fierce rat-a-tat of the drums.”
The Huffington Post: Ann Packer's 'Molten': Narrative Magazine's Friday Feature
“In spite of its 20 million players in 185 countries, squash, by its very nature, will be always be hard-pressed to translate to telly's flatscreen blandness its unique snakepit ferocity, rat-a-tat machine‑gun speed and intimate competitive intensities.”
The Guardian: World champion Nick Matthew presses the case for squash | Frank Keating
“The rat-a-tat of Wallaby tries showed precisely the ruthlessness which Warren Gatland is still trying to instil in his own side.”
The Guardian: Warm words for Shane Williams but Wales face cold reality
“As farmers step closer for a look at the big red contraption near the ruins of the Fauquier Livestock Exchange, an auctioneer's rat-a-tat rumble comes over the loudspeaker that sits atop a Ford pickup with a Confederate flag license plate in the window.”
The Washington Post: Farmers vow to rebuild Northern Virginia livestock exchange as community hub
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘rat-a-tat’.
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Hyphen Nation
Terms with multiple hyphens, such as rent-a-crowd. Not intended to be a see-how-many-words-one-can-string-together-with-hyphens-used-adjectively sort of list.
much-talked-of, vis-à-vis, tête-à-tête, rope-a-dope, will-o'-the-wisp, dick-a-tuesday, will-in-the-wisp, jack-o'-lantern, jack-with-a-lantern, ear-to-ear, whack-a-mole, no-man's-land and 205 more...
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sound (loud)
words for loud sounds
( open list, descriptive, randomness )
also see:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/onomatopo...crash, thud, bump, thump, boom, smash, explode, roar, scream, screech, short, yell and 168 more...
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Onomatopoetics
Words formed in imitation of a natural sound.
bumble-bee, rat-a-tat, blurt, clink, chickadee, rub-a-dub, chirr, chug, keck, flim-flam, brekekekex, thunk and 94 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for rat-a-tat.
Comments
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