Dictionary — ontologydriven

ratty en · ADJ · etymology 1

From rat + -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of’ forming adjective).

Resembling or characteristic of a rat; ratlike.
Infested with rats.
(figuratively, informal) In poor condition or repair.
- I was having exactly that thought on a ratty mock-leather couch in Islington. 2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador, published 2007, page 80:
- The Marcher lord was still clad in his ratty black cloak and dented breastplate with its chipped enamel lightning. 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:
- 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. 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:
(Australia, figuratively, informal) Crazy, mad; ridiculous; slightly strange, eccentric; also (followed by about, on, or over), attracted to, infatuated with.
(figuratively, informal) Annoyed, bad-tempered, irritable.
- He got bad, he got ratty, he would take it out on people around him. He was mean when it turned against him. 2009, Ian McDonald, River of Gods:

Spelling	Features	Labels	Source
rattier	Degree=Cmp		lexicographic
rattiest	Degree=Sup		lexicographic

ru крыси́ный (similar to a rat — see also ratlike) · ro șobolănos (similar to a rat — see also ratlike)

(uncountable) Synonym of knock down ginger (“prank of knocking on a front door and running away”).