rat terrier

a terrier of any of several breeds developed especially for catching rats, as the Manchester terrier.

QUIZZES

Even if you can't be a professional chef, you can at least talk like one with this vocabulary quiz.

Question 1 of 9

You may have read the word "simmer" in a recipe or two, but what does it really mean?

First recorded in 1850–55

She would know how to depress a rat-terrier with it and make a lap-dog look sorry he came.
The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories|Mark Twain
A rat-terrier believes that on his home grounds he can whip an elephant.
Penrod|Booth Tarkington
Only the point of it stuck up; the rest was clipped as clean as a rat-terrier's.
The Underdog|F. Hopkinson Smith
He lacked imagination, and he had the manner of a rat-terrier toward people not of his own kind; but he was one good executive.
The U-boat hunters|James B. Connolly

As for rats, everybody knows that one rat-terrier in a granary is better than an army of cats.
Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 20, August 1877|Various