subs. (old).—1. Usually in pl. = the buttocks or thighs.—HARMAN (1573); ROWLANDS (1610); HEAD (1665); B. E. (c. 1696); COLES (1724); GROSE (1785). Hence, as verb = to beat; to swish.
1596. SHAKESPEARE, Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 2. Mrs. Page. Come, Mother PRAT.… Ford. I’ll PRAT her … [Beating him].
1610. ROWLANDS, Martin Mark-all, 3 [Hunterian Club’s Reprint, 1874]. And tip lowr with thy PRAT.
1641. R. BROME, A Joviall Crew, ii. Mort. Go Fiddle Patrico, and let me sing. First set me down here on both my PRATS.
1707. J. SHIRLEY, The Triumph of Wit [FARMER, Musa Pedestris (1896), 33]. No gentry mort hath PRATS like thine.
1895. H. B. MARRIOTT-WATSON, The King’s Treasure, in The New Review, July, 8. We ain’t to do nothing, Dick Ryder, but to set down upon our PRATS and see ’em put up their hands and cry for mercy to this fire-eater here.
2. (old).—A tinder-box.—B. E. (c. 1696); GROSE (1785).
3. (venery).—The female pudendum: see MONOSYLLABLE.
4. (old).—A trick.
Verb. (thieves’).—See quot. Fr. entauler, and enquiller.
1879. J. W. HORSLEY, ‘Autobiography of a Thief,’ in Macmillan’s Magazine, XL., 501. I piped a slavey (servant) come out of a chat (house), so when she had got a little way up the double (turning), I PRATTED (went) in the house.
