Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. One that catches or kills rats: Many terriers are good ratters.
- n. Slang One who betrays or deserts another.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One who catches rats; a rat-catcher.
- n. An animal which catches rats, as a terrier.
- n. One who rats, or becomes a renegade; also, a workman who renders himself obnoxious to a trades-union. See ratting, 2.
Wiktionary
- n. Anything which catches rats, especially a dog trained to catch them; a rat terrier.
- n. One who rats; a traitor; a deserter.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One who, or that which, rats, as one who deserts his party.
- n. Anything which catches rats; esp., a dog trained to catch rats; a rat terrier. See Terrier.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any of several breeds of terrier developed to catch rats
- n. a disloyal person who betrays or deserts his cause or religion or political party or friend etc.
Etymologies
- rat + -er (Wiktionary)
Examples
“ratter" -- superstitious Tudor sailors did not have cats on board as they were thought to bring bad luck.”
“In the Central and South American countries this snake is highly valued as a "ratter" and frequents human habitations without fear.”
“June 26th, 2009 9: 51 pm ET call your senators tell them too vote no on this bill. this bill is bad for the economy raise the price of goods and ship manafactureing job overseas. i can't beleive how every news station is burying it. it seem they forgot howtoo stand up too make this country great, but ratter kiss polical butt”
“On another tour, Cecil and Constance stayed at a boardinghouse run by a woman who kept a python as a ratter.”
“For the present, the German ratter has trounced its Irish doppelganger.”
“I had wanted a cat for a long time, having grown up with one, and now we really needed a ratter.”
Simon & Schuster: Chicken Soup for the Soul: What I Learned from the Cat
“As for rats, they are far too big for your average cat: best to call in a good ratter like a Parson Jack Russell Terrier which can clear a whole Dutch Barn of rats in two shakes of a cat's tail.”
“More prosaically, a ratter out could get a one-way ticket back to his home country plus a big fat check financed through employer fines.”
“I am sumwot hobbit-like in dat i prefurrs to read about adbenchures ratter dan bean in dem if it mite inbolb dragons oar banditoes.”
utube - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
“August 22, 2008 at 1:02 pm ohohes. i finkso you shud see yr Dr Tinycat sooner ratter dan layter; i finkso, yes.”
Sumthin jus - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ratter’.
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metaphoric references to dogs
As an ongoing part of my project, Dogs in Metaphor and Idiom, Illustrated, (www.metaphordogs.org) I am continually adding terms. If you know a term that fi...
dog, alpha male, at bay, bark, bird dog, bitch, bitchin, bloodhound, bulldog, canaille, canines, cerberus and 131 more...
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Rats
rats, rat, tree-rat, pilori-rat, prorate, pro rata, Ratso Rizzo, ratfink, rat pack, Rat Pack, Rats!, rat race and 157 more...
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dogs and their relatives
dog dogs and more dogs anything
I can think of ,canids and their
relatives
my favourite African wild dog
all have 42 teethaffenpinscher, akita, alan, aland, alant, alopecoid, apso, bandog, barbet, basenji, basset, bawtie and 355 more...
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For Faulkner Lovers
Or anybody else studying his works, especially The Bear.
immobile, absolve, temerity, abject, effluvium, daube, lambent, attrition, moil, relinquish, evanescent, dissolution and 53 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for ratter.
fbharjo certain breeds of dogs were breed to root out rats hence the term 'ratter' Jul 13, 2009