Synonyms for ratted

Grammar : Verb

Spell : rat

Phonetic Transcription : ræt

Top 10 synonyms for ratted

Other synonyms for the word ratted

Définition of ratted

Origin : late Old English ræt "rat," of uncertain origin. Similar words are found in Celtic (Gaelic radan), Romanic (Italian ratto, Spanish rata, French rat) and Germanic (Old Saxon ratta; Dutch rat; German Ratte, dialectal Ratz; Swedish råtta, Danish rotte) languages, but connection is uncertain and origin unknown. In all this it is very much like cat.
Perhaps from Vulgar Latin *rattus, but Weekley thinks this is of Germanic origin, "the animal having come from the East with the race-migrations" and the word passing thence to the Romanic languages. American Heritage and Tucker connect Old English ræt to Latin rodere and thus PIE *red- "to scrape, scratch, gnaw," source of rodent (q.v.). Klein says there is no such connection and suggests a possible cognate in Greek rhine "file, rasp." Weekley connects them with a question mark and Barnhart writes, "the relationship to each other of the Germanic, Romance, and Celtic words for rat is uncertain." OED says "probable" the rat word spread from Germanic to Romanic, but takes no position on ultimate origin.
RATS. Of these there are the following kinds: a black rat and a grey rat, a py-rat and a cu-rat. ["Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue," Grose, 1788]
Middle English common form was ratton, from augmented Old French form raton. Sense of "one who abandons his associates" (1620s) is from belief that rats leave a ship about to sink or a house about to fall and led to meaning "traitor, informant" (1902; verb 1910). Interjection rats is American English, 1886. To smell a rat is 1540s; "to be put on the watch by suspicion as the cat by the scent of a rat; to suspect danger" [Johnson]. _____-rat, "person who frequents _____" (in earliest reference dock-rat) is from 1864.

As in renounce : verb abandon, reject
As in repudiate : verb reject; turn one's back on
As in sing : verb tattle on someone
As in turn : verb change one's mind; defect
As in blow the whistle : verb inform on
As in sell out : verb betray principles
As in default : verb dodge payment
As in defect : verb break from belief, faith
As in denounce : verb condemn, attack

Example sentences :

You remember how Anchor Joe talked about someone who had ‘ratted’?
Extract from : « The Secret Pact » by Mildred A. Wirt

Only about that dreadful Mr Trenchard; you know the reason why he ratted?
Extract from : « Sybil » by Benjamin Disraeli

Matthew, we know, played the traitor; and though Mackworth ratted to my own side, I fear it must be confessed that he did rat.
Extract from : « Essays in English Literature, 1780-1860 » by George Saintsbury

But every so often he mutters that he’ll get even with someone by the name of Otto—a fellow sailor who ‘ratted.
Extract from : « The Secret Pact » by Mildred A. Wirt

If claims are ratted it is said there are strangers about, and the miners deal with rats according to their own ideas of justice.
Extract from : « The Black Opal » by Katharine Susannah Prichard

Either the consistent Radical, or the inconsistent Conservative Party, has 'ratted' in the most barefaced manner.
Extract from : « Critical Studies » by Ouida

Antonyms for ratted

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019