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rat snake

American

noun

any of several New and Old World colubrid snakes, of the genus Elaphe, that feed chiefly on small mammals and birds.

rat snake British

noun

any of various nonvenomous rodent-eating colubrid snakes, such as Elaphe obsoleta of North America and Ptyas mucosus of Asia

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of rat snake

First recorded in 1855–60

Compare meaning

How does rat-snake compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

rat snake vs. corn snake

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

A TikTok of “The Traitors” and “Love Island” cast member Rob Rausch handling a rat snake.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 5, 2026

“The dearest baby gray rat snake was crossing our driveway the other day just as the dog and I were leaving for a walk.”

From New York Times • Jul. 15, 2023

Had she not joined it four years earlier, the final encounter of that snakeful day, with a rat snake wrapped around her door handle, would probably have ended poorly for the snake.

From Scientific American • Sep. 18, 2022

A cart attendant at a Walmart in Texas got quite the scare on Friday after discovering a large rat snake in a group of shopping carts.

From Fox News • May 27, 2019

Papa had been talking about that place ever since George had brought the two-foot rat snake to school to show Mr. Landers—because they were studying reptiles!

From "I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912" by Lauren Tarshis

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023