wood rat
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of wood rat
First recorded in 1750–60
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 wood rat she can’t bring herself to kill has recently taken up residence under her house, and every day it leaves piles of rocks by her desk window as an inscrutable offering.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2021
In a second, Bristle’s head reappeared, and in her jaws was a wood rat.
From "Pax" by Sara Pennypacker
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A rabbit jumped up, but so did a wood rat.
From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
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Afterwards I caught sight of a gray animal, probably a wood rat, running down a branch behind me, and heard queer muffled sounds of gnawing.
From A-Birding on a Bronco by Merriam, Florence A.
One of these specimens was a skull found near a wood rat nest.
From Mammals of the Grand Mesa, Colorado by Anderson, Sydney
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.