Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A device for trapping rats.
  • noun Informal A dilapidated or unsanitary dwelling.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A device (trap) used to catch rats.
  • noun A dilapidated building, a place that is run down and unsanitary.
  • noun A difficult, entangling situation.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a difficult entangling situation
  • noun filthy run-down dilapidated housing
  • noun a trap for catching rats

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word rattrap.

Examples

  • Under the sink sat an old rattrap identical to the two that I had taken earlier.

    Day by Day Armageddon: Beyond Exile J.L. Bourne 2010

  • The oldest one is counting the days until he turns eighteen and can leave this rattrap.

    Learning to Die in Miami Carlos Eire 2010

  • Under the sink sat an old rattrap identical to the two that I had taken earlier.

    Day by Day Armageddon: Beyond Exile J.L. Bourne 2010

  • By the time it became my home it was quite a rattrap.

    Coming Off Antidepressants Can Be Tricky Business 2010

  • Yet we are also drawn to workaday items such as cowbells, noodle-makers, and a cleverly designed rattrap.

    One Hour Out: Bangalore 2009

  • The promise of fame is the cheese in Baron Cohen's rattrap of a movie, and everybody bites.

    Cohen’s ‘Borat’ 2008

  • But, really, you and the others here have hammered away for the democrats to some up with a “plan” or have an “agenda” for the future — - well, be careful what you wish for, NED, us conservatives are getting caught in our own rattrap.

    Think Progress » Vietnam Vet Murtha on Cheney: 2005

  • This is the worst mess he's seen in several dozen old-rattrap renovations.

    As the pigeon loft turns jhetley 2006

  • Cardenas awoke to a crawling sensation the likes of which he had experienced only once before, twenty years earlier while engaged in a stakeout in a rattrap of a motel in the worst part of Tucson.

    The Mocking Program Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- 2002

  • Her teeth protruded from the withered binding like a set rattrap.

    Change Me Into Zeus’s Daughter Barbara Robinette Moss 2001

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.