ratty
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɹæti/
ipa: /ˈɹæti/
ipa: [-ɾi]
rhymes: -æti
Forms: form: rattier
form: rattiest
Etymology: From rat + -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of’ forming adjective).
Senses: synonyms: rattish
glosses: Resembling or characteristic of a rat; ratlike.
glosses: Infested with rats.
examples: text: We got an old tin lantern, and a butcher knife without any handle, and a bran-new Barlow knife worth two bits in any store, and a lot of tallow candles, and a tin candlestick, and a gourd, and a tin cup, and a ratty old bed-quilt off the bed, […] and just as we were leaving I found a tolerable good curry-comb, and Jim he found a ratty old fiddle-bow, and a wooden leg.
ref: 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter IX, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 78:
text: The Marcher lord was still clad in his ratty black cloak and dented breastplate with its chipped enamel lightning.
ref: 2000 August 8, George R[aymond] R[ichard] Martin, “Arya [Stark]”, in A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire; 3), London: Voyager, →ISBN, page 443:
text: I was having exactly that thought on a ratty mock-leather couch in Islington.
ref: 2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador, published 2007, page 80:
synonyms: battered
tattered
tatty
torn
worn out
glosses: In poor condition or repair.
glosses: Crazy, mad; ridiculous; slightly strange, eccentric; also (followed by about, on, or over), attracted to, infatuated with.
examples: text: He got bad, he got ratty, he would take it out on people around him. He was mean when it turned against him.
ref: 2009, Ian McDonald, River of Gods:
synonyms: word: annoyed
word: angry
word: aggravated
word: agitated
word: bothered
word: exasperated
word: frustrated
word: irritable
word: irritated
word: irked
word: peeved
word: pestered
word: pissy
word: ratty
word: shitty
word: sore
word: tired
word: vexed
word: bee in one's bonnet
word: have it in for
word: hot and bothered
word: hold a grudge
word: brassed off
word: browned off
word: cheesed off
word: peed off
word: pissed off
word: PO'd
word: teed off
word: ticked off
word: atrabilious
word: liverish
word: bad-tempered
word: fractious
word: bilious
word: bitchy
word: brainish
word: cantankerous
word: carnaptious
word: crabbit
word: crabby
word: cranky
word: crotchety
word: dyspeptic
word: edgy
word: fantoddish
word: fiery
word: fretful
word: grumpy
word: grotchy
word: grouchy
word: hissy
word: hot-livered
word: hot-tempered
word: hotheaded
word: huffy
word: humpy
word: ill-natured
word: ill-tempered
word: irascible
word: irritable
word: out of sorts
word: ornery (chiefly US)}
word: peevish
word: pettish
word: petulant
word: prickly
word: quick-tempered
word: querulous
word: raspy
word: ratty
word: short-tempered
word: snappish
word: snappy
word: snippety
word: snippish
word: snippy
word: snitchy
word: splenetic
word: stressy
word: surly
word: testy
word: tetchy
word: tetty
word: thin-skinned
word: thorny
word: touchy
word: twitchy
word: umbrageous
word: waspish
glosses: Annoyed, bad-tempered, irritable.
Derived terms: rattily
rattiness