Definitions

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

  • adjective Of or characteristic of rats.
  • adjective Infested with rats.
  • adjective Dilapidated; shabby.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Looking like a rat; smelling like a rat; hence, dirty.
  • Miserable; wretched; poor.
  • Full of rats: as, a ratty cellar.

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

  • adjective Similar to a rat; ratlike.
  • adjective Infested with rats.
  • adjective colloquial In poor condition or repair; worn out; battered; tattered; torn.
  • adjective UK, colloquial Irritable, annoyed.

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

  • adjective dirty and infested with rats
  • adjective showing signs of wear and tear
  • adjective of or characteristic of rats

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From rat +‎ -y.

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Examples

  • He was dressed in ratty jeans and an old green field jacket.

    Why Life is Now More Complicated 2009

  • He was dressed in ratty jeans and an old green field jacket.

    Why Life is Now More Complicated 2009

  • Cages holding lumps in ratty jackets lined the opposite wall.

    365 tomorrows » 2009 » October : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day 2009

  • Used and ratty is fine as I am not going to use it for pasta.

    Pasta Machine needed 2007

  • But if you are in ratty jeans, and your hair is a mess, you might take it as an insult.

    Smug Ugly - Anil Dash 2007

  • Madhani had traveled extensively through the dangers of Iraq — unarmed, unguarded, in ratty old cars — and he knew that many apparently random attacks had hidden histories behind them.

    Welcome to the Green Zone 2004

  • Madhani had traveled extensively through the dangers of Iraq — unarmed, unguarded, in ratty old cars — and he knew that many apparently random attacks had hidden histories behind them.

    Welcome to the Green Zone 2004

  • He admits it looks "ratty" - but that has only happened because he has always been so proud of it, and what it represents, that he has worn it into the ground.

    AustralianIT.com.au | Top Stories 2009

  • That means that a lot of nerds are struggling for their next paycheck, living in ratty apartments and working in crappy jobs, and they don’t even realize that the reason they’re poor is because people find them offputting.

    Overcoming Your Nerd-Dom: Part 1 In A Possibly-Continuing Series 2006

  • Could you elaborate on the data processing aspects of the investigation analysis such as the geographic information system analysis of the debris and drilling down into the so called ratty data, and if you're going to build a database to help you analyze the evidence you're collecting?

    CNN Transcript Feb 3, 2003 2003

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