Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The act of deserting one's principles, and going over to the opposite party.
- noun In the trades, the act of working for less than established or demanded prices, or of refusing to strike, or of taking the place of a striker.
- noun A low sport consisting in setting a dog upon a number of rats confined in a tub, cage, or pit, to see how many he will kill in a given time.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The conduct or practices of one who rats. See
rat , v. i., 1. - noun The low sport of setting a dog upon rats confined in a pit to see how many he will kill in a given time.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb Present participle of
rat . - noun archaic The
sport of setting adog uponrats confined in apit to see how many he will kill in a given time.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun to furnish incriminating evidence to an officer of the law (usually in return for favors)
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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After all, ratting is good fun, and difficult to come by in London.
Try Anything Twice 1938
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Political prisoner probably whose offence had been "ratting" -- and so his punishment was made "to fit the crime," as Mr. GILBERT's _Mikado_ used to observe.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 101, September 19, 1891 Various
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Godard once said that by "ratting" to the police she had emancipated herself.
Patricia Zohn: Culture Zohn: The Enduring Magic of Breathless 2010
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Firstly, back in 1996, when official 'ratting' was largely dying out, a woman came back for a consultation to the place I lived and the owner of the house immediately went at her and pushed the woman out the door, which she then slammed behind.
Archive 2009-06-01 2009
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Firstly, back in 1996, when official 'ratting' was largely dying out, a woman came back for a consultation to the place I lived and the owner of the house immediately went at her and pushed the woman out the door, which she then slammed behind.
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One day one may engage in trading, another in hauling, or "ratting" or guard duty, or just plain...
The Drop Kick 2006
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I don ` t say this applies to present day activities in any police force but I think it is very well known the practice of never "ratting" on a fellow police officer is very close to reality.
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Well, I was strictly independent and I didn't take any "ratting" see, so
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Using the analogy of a poker game he explained why an honor system, if correctly understood and adequately communicated, attempts to eliminate doubt on this point and why such terms as "ratting," "squealing," etc. are not appropriate.
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Resident Brandon Goddard told the newspaper how he killed the animal as he went "ratting" with friends on the edge of the estate.
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