# ratfuck
## English
### Alternative forms

* rat-fuck, rat fuck

### Etymology

From rat +‎ fuck. Metaphorical use arose c. 1950 in the United States, likely from college slang; see Wikipedia.

### Verb

ratfuck (third-person singular simple present ratfucks, present participle ratfucking, simple past and past participle ratfucked) (slang)
* (vulgar, transitive, intransitive) To steal or disorganize items that do not belong to one.
** 2007, Marcus Eriksen, My River Home: A Journey from the Gulf War to the Gulf of Mexico, →ISBN:“In my brief absence they ratfucked my bag and distributed the contents among themselves.”
** 2010, Paul Thomas, The Ihaka Trilogy, The Ihaka Trilogy page 349:“If I was in your shoes pal, getting ratfucked would be the least of my worries.”
** 2011, Evan Wright, Generation Kill, →ISBN, page 410:“I follow along with several on a mission to ratfuck the main office tower.”
* (vulgar) To sabotage; to fight dirty against or betray and cause disarray among.
** 1990, Mick Farren, Mars: The Red Planet, →ISBN, page 136:“Unless what's happening here is that we're getting ratfucked ourselves.”
** 2007, Larry Jackson Kolb, America at Night:“Rove had been ratfucking for Republicans ever since.”
** 2010, Rick Perlstein, Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America, →ISBN:“Ratfucking took money—and drained money away from throwing a proper national party convention.”
* (vulgar, politics) To interfere in an election.

#### Derived terms

* ratfucker

### Noun

ratfuck (plural ratfucks) (slang)
* (vulgar) Someone who engages in dirty tricks.
** 2015, Walter Jon Williams, Conventions of War (Dread Empire's Fall Series): Dread Empire's Fall 3‎:“I want the ratfucks who did this,” Sula said.
* (vulgar, more generally) Someone despicable.
** 2012, Robert Anasi, The Last Bohemia: Scenes from the Life of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, →ISBN:You ratfuck. You ratfuck! You gotta say something!
** 2013, Matthew Stover, Caine's Law, →ISBN:I can't think of any plausible harm you can do. And I know you're not a ratfuck just for the sake of being a ratfuck.
** 2014, George R. R. Martin, Wild Cards III: Jokers Wild, →ISBN:Yeah. Okay. I want the little ratfuck dead.
* (vulgar) An act of sabotage or dirty tricks.
** 2010, Rick Perlstein, Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America, →ISBN:The Humphrey campaign had been able to undo a ratfuck at the last minute by getting a notice into the Saturday Milwaukee Sentinel saying there would be no free lunch that afternoon with the candidate and Lorne Green of Bonanza, as advertised in a flyer circulated in the ghetto.
** 2016, David Daley, Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn't Count, →ISBN:The REDMAP ratfuck was done in such plain sight that Karl Rove himself announced it on the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal.
* (vulgar) A violent or disastrous situation.
** 2002, David Drake, Paying the Piper, →ISBN:The Lord knew, he'd always tried to do his job; but it was hard to see what good he was doing there, or what good he or anybody else could do in a ratfuck like Plattner's World was turning into
** 2004, A. J. Liebling, Mollie and Other War Pieces, →ISBN, page 151:Whoever checked them out in a bomber ought to have his head examined. What a ratfuck!
** 2003, Shelly Waxman, James Nathan Post, J. D. Post, Piranhas on the Loose, →ISBN, page 29:So the LOJ turned out to be a ratfuck, working with a bunch of clueless turkeys playing stupid games.
** 2013, David Drake, Northworld Trilogy, →ISBN:This was going to be a ratfuck, and the campaign that followed was going to be a bigger ratfuck... but that's what wars were, individual ratfucks multiplied by the number of combatants.
* (vulgar) An overcrowded party.
** 2005, Carrie Fisher, The Best Awful: A Novel - Volume 2, →ISBN, page 7:That was the first thing Leland had ever said to her the first time she met him, at one of those Hollywood Hills ratfucks Lucy had dragged her to.
** 2012, Curtis Sittenfeld, Prep, →ISBN, page 239:"Were you girls at the lunch?" my father asked. "What a ratfuck, huh?"
* (vulgar) Something of no value.
** 2016, Thom Jones, The Pugilist at Rest: Stories, →ISBN:“I don't give a ratfuck,” he said.

### Anagrams

* artfuck