View synonyms for rathole

rathole

[ rat-hohl ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

a hole made by a rat, as into a room, barn, etc.:
The first chore in the old building is to plug up the ratholes.
the burrow or shelter of a rat.
any small and uncomfortable room, office, apartment, etc., especially one that is dirty or disordered:
He lives in a rathole near the docks.

Origin of rathole¹

First recorded in 1805–15; rat + hole

down the rathole, for a worthless purpose or purposes:
seeing your inheritance disappear down the rathole.

I certainly do, but I think they’ve gone down that same rathole in Colorado and in Montana and other places.

The platform was in a warehouse which, like the rest of the structures in Rathole, was a half-buried dome.

He knew every rathole of the system, with the same intimacy the rats knew them.

He had seven hours to go and he was still at least 16 kilometers from Rathole.

There was nothing to do but turn back to Rathole and see if some other way could not be found.

You will have to take a groundcar to Rathole and bring the fellow back.

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

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