rat-a-tat
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of rat-a-tat
First recorded in 1675–85; imitative
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.
“People were amazed. They could see these top stars singing and dancing. They could hear the rat-a-tat of the guns. And sound also made for a tremendous amount of creativity in movie making.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 15, 2026
Inspired by US vocal harmony groups such as En Vogue and SWV, Mis-Teeq cleverly incorporated garage and hip-hop to their sound, with Alesha Dixon's rat-a-tat MC'ing setting them apart from more their pop rivals.
From BBC • Nov. 7, 2025
You could hear her before you could see her: a throaty, rat-a-tat laugh — ha-ha-ha-ha — drifting through the cool canyon air.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 20, 2024
By longstanding, bipartisan tradition, decades of White House press secretaries have handed down a cheeky symbol of their job fielding rat-a-tat inquiries from feisty reporters: a flak jacket.
From New York Times • May 20, 2022
The blare of trumpets and the rat-a-tat of snare drums surround them.
From "The Boy Who Dared" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
