like a rat with wings
- idiom
- Informal
:
como un ratón con alas
- He zipped across the soccer field like a rat with wings, weaving around the defenders.
Examples
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She snatched her bag and ran for the door like a rat with wings as soon as the bell rang.
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The cat darted through the garden like a rat with wings, chasing the leaves blown by the wind.
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She darted away like a rat with wings when she saw the spider!
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He moved like a rat with wings during the soccer match.
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He zipped across the soccer field like a rat with wings, weaving around the defenders.
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She snatched her bag and ran for the door like a rat with wings as soon as the bell rang.
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The cat darted through the garden like a rat with wings, chasing the leaves blown by the wind.
Synonyms
8
8.2
Very quickly and with great energy
Very quickly, especially when leaving or running away
Antonyms
How Agile
Surface Forms
Morphology
The simile combines transparent constituent meanings—'rat' (agile, quick in a scurrying way) and 'wings' (ability to fly/move quickly)—so a learner who knows the words can infer a humorous image of unusual swiftness. However, the expression is metaphorical and playful, and its precise nuance (mischievous or surprising quickness) is culture-dependent rather than strictly compositional, so the connection is only partly predictable.
Etymology
Like a rat with wings probably comes from a funny image of a small rat with wings suddenly flying away and being hard to catch. So people use it to say someone is 'very quick and hard to catch'.