Dictionary

ratfuck en · NOUN

Etymology

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

Meanings

1. (slang, vulgar) Someone who engages in dirty tricks.
   • “I want the ratfucks who did this,” Sula said. 2015, Walter Jon Williams, Conventions of War (Dread Empire's Fall Series): Dread Empire's Fall 3:
2. (broadly, slang, vulgar) Someone despicable.
   • 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. 2013, Matthew Stover, Caine's Law, →ISBN:
   • You ratfuck. You ratfuck! You gotta say something! 2012, Robert Anasi, The Last Bohemia: Scenes from the Life of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, →ISBN:
   • Yeah. Okay. I want the little ratfuck dead. 2014, George R. R. Martin, Wild Cards III: Jokers Wild, →ISBN:
3. (slang, vulgar) An act of sabotage or dirty tricks.
   • 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. 2016, David Daley, Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn't Count, →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. 2010, Rick Perlstein, Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America, →ISBN:
4. (slang, vulgar) A violent or disastrous situation.
   • 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. 2013, David Drake, Northworld Trilogy, →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 2002, David Drake, Paying the Piper, →ISBN:
   • So the LOJ turned out to be a ratfuck, working with a bunch of clueless turkeys playing stupid games. 2003, Shelly Waxman, James Nathan Post, J. D. Post, Piranhas on the Loose, →ISBN, page 29:
   • Whoever checked them out in a bomber ought to have his head examined. What a ratfuck! 2004, A. J. Liebling, Mollie and Other War Pieces, →ISBN, page 151:
5. (slang, vulgar) An overcrowded party.
   • "Were you girls at the lunch?" my father asked. "What a ratfuck, huh?" 2012, Curtis Sittenfeld, Prep, →ISBN, page 239:
   • 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. 2005, Carrie Fisher, The Best Awful: A Novel - Volume 2, →ISBN, page 7:
6. (slang, vulgar) Something of no value.
   • “I don't give a ratfuck,” he said. 2016, Thom Jones, The Pugilist at Rest: Stories, →ISBN:

Forms

wikipedia: ratfucking

ratfuck en · VERB

Etymology

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

Meanings

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

Forms

Deriveds

ratfucker

wikipedia: ratfucking