Definitions

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

  • noun The quality of being ratty.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

ratty +‎ -ness

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Examples

  • The chief beneficiary is Sophie Thompson, who plays Mrs Hardcastle, wife of the outraged house owner, with a sublime mix of rattiness and affectation, largely conveyed by the trick of mercilessly extending her vowels.

    She Stoops To Conquer 2012

  • I sort of hypnotized myself into thinking their sheer rattiness had a certain allure.

    Breakfast At Tiffany's Capote, Truman, 1924- 1958

  • I sort of hypnotized myself into thinking their sheer rattiness had a certain allure.

    Breakfast At Tiffany's Capote, Truman, 1924- 1958

  • But we soon began to regret the absence of sustenance, for this kind of weather makes for extreme lassitude shot through with rattiness, and under its influence nourishment dies in one with painful celerity.

    Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 152, April 4, 1917 Various

  • Alan introduced him to Kurt, and then Lyman introduced them both to his colleagues, a gender-parity posse of young, smart-looking people, along with one graybeard (literally -- he had a Unix beard of great rattiness and gravitas) who had no fewer than seven devices on his belt, including a line tester and a GPS.

    Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town Cory Doctorow

  • On top of that the number of children in my household increased from one to three – thus tripling the “we’re all so over the school holidays” energy and rattiness.

    Permission Not to Write « Write Anything 2010

  • But I didn’t judge him for the rattiness of his attire: I immediately deferred to his age, and I was more concerned, and pleased, that he see that I was dressed in a similar proper way.

    THE EXTRA MAN JONATHAN AMES 1998

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