🏚️ A bad building 🪤 A rat catcher 🕳️ A hard situation

rattrap

1 9.5

A building that is very dirty, unsafe, and falling apart

noun
/ˈrætræp/

Informal

: chabola

l gave him to her when I evacuated Mrs. Casey's rattrap.

Examples

You know, I didn't need an escort from the clink back to this rattrap.

Pickup on South Street (1953)
How long have you been calling this rattrap home?

Assassination (1987)
Who are you to call this place a rattrap?

Head of State (2003)
Living in this rattrap has made us realize how important a safe home is.
The old hotel was a real rattrap, with broken windows and filthy floors.
After years of neglect, the building turned into a rattrap that no one wanted to rent.

Synonyms

firetrap

vsrattrap

4 7.9

A building that is unsafe and hard to escape from in a fire

is a generally dilapidated dirty dwelling with many hazards beyond fire risk

rathole

vsrattrap

8.7

A small hole in a wall or floor made by rats

is a ruined whole building in bad condition, not a small rodent hole

Antonyms

well-kept

7 1.8

Neat and in good condition because someone looks after it

How Run-down

rattrap

Informal

1 9.5

derelict

14 7.5

dilapidated

18 6.2

ratty

Informal

19 5.4

shabby

33 2.5

Surface Forms

rattrap singular

rattraps plural

Morphology

rattrap = rat + trap (semi-transparent) = rat + trap

The components are visible, but the sense ‘dilapidated, rat-infested place’ is a metaphorical extension rather than a literal compound meaning.

Etymology

Rattrap first meant a 'trap for rats', and soon people used it for very dirty, falling-apart homes where rats lived. So calling a place a rattrap paints a picture of a filthy, unsafe building full of pests.