rat
noun/ræt/
/ræt/
Idioms - a small animal with a long tail, that looks like a large mouse, usually considered a pest (= an animal which is disliked because it destroys food or spreads disease)
老鼠；耗子 - rat poison
老鼠药 - The police are all over town. He’s caught, like a rat in a trap.
警察遍布全城。他被困住了，就像一只被困在陷阱里的老鼠。
Extra ExamplesTopics Animalsb2- Rats had gnawed through the wires.
老鼠把电线啃断了。 - The dog was a useful rat catcher in the warehouse.
狗是仓库中有用的捕鼠能手。 - a rat-infested cellar
老鼠横行的地下室
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- black
- brown
- lab
- …
- scurry
- scuttle
- gnaw
- …
- catcher
- droppings
- poison
- …
- rat poison
- (informal, disapproving) an unpleasant person, especially somebody who treats their partner or friends badly, for example by leaving them or cheating them
人渣；骗子 - You mean he just walked out on her after fifteen years? What a rat!
你是说十五年后他就抛弃了她？真是一只老鼠啊！
- You mean he just walked out on her after fifteen years? What a rat!
Word OriginOld English ræt, probably of Romance origin; reinforced in Middle English by Old French rat. The verb dates from the early 19th cent.
Idioms
(like rats) deserting/leaving a sinking ship
- (humorous, disapproving) used to talk about people who leave an organization, a company, etc. that is having difficulties, without caring about the people who are left
（比喻只顾自己而离开处于困境中的机构等）（像）逃离沉船（的老鼠）
smell a rat
- (informal) to suspect that something is wrong about a situation
怀疑事情不妙；感觉情况不对