poor as a rat
- idiom
- Informal
:
pobre como una rata
- She described her childhood as being poor as a rat, with barely enough to eat.
Examples
-
When the rent went up, they suddenly found themselves poor as a rat.
-
After losing his job, he felt poor as a rat.
-
After the company went bankrupt, he was poor as a rat for months.
-
He feels poor as a rat after paying for college.
-
After the company went bankrupt, he was poor as a rat and struggled to make ends meet.
-
She described her childhood as being poor as a rat, living in a small house with very little food.
-
When the rent went up, they suddenly found themselves poor as a rat, unable to afford basic necessities.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Having little money or possessions
237
1.8
Having no money
50
6.2
People or places that have very little money and few things they need
43
1.5
Without enough food, clothes, or a home and often gets help from others
24
4.3
Having no money
22
8.7
Very poor and without enough money for basic needs
21
3.9
Not having basic things like enough food, a safe home, or clean water
20
6.5
Very poor and without basic things like food or a home
9
5.1
Very poor and needing help to live
2
9.9
Very poor and having almost no money
1
8.6
Having no money at all
1
9.9
Having little or no money
1
9.9
Having little or no money
1
7.6
Having almost no money
1
9.9
Very poor and unable to pay for basic needs
1
9.3
With no money at all
Poor and without enough food, money or shelter
Very poor with no money at all
Having no money to pay for things
Very poor and only able to pay for basic needs like food
A person who has little money and cannot buy basic things
Antonyms
How Poor
Surface Forms
Morphology
The adjective 'poor' and the comparative frame 'as a' make the general domain (poverty) clear, but the choice of 'rat' does not transparently encode extreme poverty—its association is cultural/metaphorical rather than compositional. Because the core meaning (being poor) is visible from the constituents but the intensifying comparison to 'rat' is not predictable without exposure, this expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Poor as a rat may come from the image of a hungry rat living in the streets, eating scraps and looking weak, so it becomes a picture of having almost nothing. That's why the phrase is used to mean 'extremely poor'.