rattrap
Americannoun
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a device for catching rats.
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a run-down, filthy, or dilapidated place.
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a difficult, involved, or entangling situation.
Etymology
Origin of rattrap
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.
While cleaning it I found lots of matches, a cap, and a rattrap.
From The New Yorker
He had accidentally stumbled upon the rattraps, two of which were attached crookedly to his sneakers.
From Literature
Chumley’s, he wrote, came well recommended when he was seeking a place to take “a ‘nice girl’ instead of the rattraps I usually patronized.”
From New York Times
The carton was very sticky, covered in glue from rattraps.
From New York Times
He remembers that house as a “rattrap,” a term that had an all-too-literal meaning for Rice, whose feet were bitten by rodents while he slept.
From Newsweek
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.
