subs. (common).—1. A renegade: espec. through self-interest. Whence (political), a deserter; or (trades-unionists’) a workman accepting lower than the Union rate, or working when his mates have ‘struck’: also RATTER; as verb., or TO DO A RAT, in all these senses, whence (loosely) to change one’s views or tactics. Hence RATTING (RATTENING, or RATTERY) = apostacy; RAT-SHOP (HOUSE, or OFFICE) = a workshop where full rates are not paid; TO RATTEN = to destroy tools and appliances, to intimidate fellow workmen, or (masters’) to lock out employees or engage non-Union (or ‘free’) labour.—GROSE (1785); BEE (1823).
1822. SIDNEY SMITH, Letters 22 June, ‘To Francis Jeffrey, Esq.’ The RATTERY and scoundrelism of public life.
1830. CROKER [Croker Papers, ii. 76]. He talked of resigning with his colleagues as a matter of course, but the knowing ones suspect that he will RAT.
1838. BULWER-LYTTON, Alice, V. ii. Political faction loves converts better even than consistent adherents. A man’s rise in life generally dates from a well-timed RAT.
1840. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends (The Lay of St. Aloys). Don’t give too much credit to people who RAT!
1847. THACKERAY, Vanity Fair, II. v. He might have been a Peer if he had played his cards better. Mr. Pitt had very nearly made him; but he RATTED always at the wrong time.
d. 1859. MACAULAY [TREVELYAN, I. 275.] I am fully resolved to oppose several of the clauses. But to declare my intention publicly … would have the appearance of RATTING.
1863. Notes and Queries, 3rd S., iv. 430. We should not now call a man a RAT for accepting office under a government of which he had spoken with disapprobation at the circuit table.
1870. STANHOPE, History of England, vii. 315. The word (both the noun and the verb to RAT) was first, as we have seen, levelled at the converts to the government of George the First, but has by degrees obtained a wider meaning and come to be applied to any sudden and mercenary change in politics.
1870. English Gilds [E.E.T.S.], Int. cxxvii. For enforcing payment of entrance-fees … as well as of fines the Craft Gilds made use of the very means of much talked of in the case of the Sheffield Trade-Unions, namely RATTENING: that is, they took away the tools of their debtors.
1878. GEORGE HOWELL, The Conflicts of Capital and Labour, viii. 13. RATTENING, as defined by the Report of the Royal Commission, is ‘the abstraction of the workman’s tools, so as to prevent him from earning his livelihood until he has obeyed the arbitrary orders of the union.’
1885. Evening News, 21 Sept., 1/6. A master baker can always get rid of an obnoxious or too outspoken unionist journeyman baker, and replace him with one of the numerous RATS ever on the look-out for a job.
1888. Puck’s Library, Jan., 13. When the Chinaman becomes a compositor, he will most likely prefer a RAT-OFFICE.
1892. Globe, 2 April, 2, 4. “He would rather like to see him brought down to this House,” he said, “where he would find plenty of occupation, as on this (the Opposition) side there were a good many RATS.”
2. (old cant).—A clergyman: see SKY-PILOT.—GROSE (1785).
1628. EARLE, Microcosmographie [BLISS (1811), 195]. A profane man is one that … nick-names clergymen with all the terms of reproach as RAT, black-coat, and the like.
3. (old).—‘A drunken person when in custody.’—B. E. (c. 1696); GROSE (1785). Whence (in pl.) = D.T.’S (q.v.); DRUNK AS A RAT = hopelessly drunk: see SCREWED.
1553. T. WILSON, The Arte of Rhetorique (1580), 128. AS DRONKE AS A RATTE.
1661. Merry Drollery, 28, ‘The Tinker of Turvey.’
| He walks about the Country, | |
| With Pike-staff, and with Butchet, | |
| DRUNK AS A RAT, you’d hardly wot | |
| That drinking so he could trudge it. |
c. 1685. The Roxburghe Ballads [Brit. Mus. ii. 101]. His master one night got DRUNK AS A RAT.
4. (nautical).—An infernal machine: espec. one used to founder insured bottoms.
c. 1880. Times [A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant]. There are two species of RATS. One species is intended to operate upon iron ships, the other upon wooden ones.
5. (back slang).—In pl. = a star.
6. (thieves’).—A police spy: see NARK; hence (general) a term of contempt.
7. (obsolete).—A hairpad, somewhat resembling a rat in shape, circa 1860–70. Also as verb.
PHRASES.—TO SMELL A RAT = to suspect a trick or roguery (FLORIO; B. E.; GROSE); TO GIVE GREEN RATS = to malign or backbite; TO HAVE (or SEE) RATS = (1) to be eccentric, (2) out of sorts, (3) drunk, and (4) crazy: also RATS IN THE GARRET (LOFT, or UPPER STORY); LIKE A DROWNED RAT = sopping wet; RAT ME = a varient of ROT ME: an objurgation; RATS! = a contemptuous retort: see WATER.
c. 1508. Colyn Blowbols Testament [HAZLITT, Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, I. 93, 31].
| He lokyd furyous as a wyld catt, | |
| And pale of hew LIKE A DROWNED RATTE. |
c. 1529. The Image of Ypocresye, 51.
| For yf they SMELL A RATT, | |
| they grisely chide and chatt. |
1630. J. WADSWORTH, The English Spanish Pilgrime, viii., 84. I got on shore as WET AS A DROWNED RAT.
1633. JONSON, Tale of a Tub, iv. 3. Do you not SMELL A RAT? I tell you truth, I think all’s knavery.
1664. COTTON, Scarronides, or, Virgil Travestie, 23.
| He strait began TO SMELL A RAT, | |
| And soon perceiv’d what they’d be at. |
1708–10. SWIFT, Polite Conversation, 17. Take Pity on poor Miss; don’t throw Water on a DROWNDED RAT.
1772. BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 204.
| Tydides’ heart went pit-a-pat, | |
| For he began to SMELL A RAT. |
1830. J. BARRINGTON, Personal Sketches of His Own Times. Sir Boyle Roche: ‘Mr. Speaker, I SMELL A RAT; I see him forming in the air and darkening the sky; but I’ll nip him in the bud.’
1840. BULWER-LYTTON, Paul Clifford, xxxiv. “Whew!” said he, lifting up his forefinger, “whew! I SMELL A RAT; this stolen child, then, was no other than Paul.”
1865. YATES, Land at Last, v. “Well, and now, old boy, how are you?” “Well, not very brilliant this morning, Algy. I ——” “Ah, like me, GOT RATS, haven’t you?”
1880. MARY ALLAN-OLNEY, The New Virginians, II. 229. Looking like the DROWNDEST OF DROWNED RATS.
1886–96. MARSHALL, His Bit of Trouble [‘Pomes,’ 122]. One word, and that was RATS!
1892. Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, 27 Feb., 66, 3. “I had ’em again last night, old man,”… “The usual thing?” asked Boozer…. “No,” said Lushington, “it was a regular mixture—RATS and skeletons … all sorts.”
1901. Troddles, 46. ‘What is it?’… ‘Foot sugar, my boy.’ ‘What do you do with it—make it into a poultice, or use it as you do mustard, for colds?’ ‘RATS!… didn’t you ever have a toffee scramble?’
1902. Daily Telegraph, 11 Feb., 7, 2. I did not issue my writ in anticipation of one being issued by the other party. They SMELT A RAT.
