sewer rat
4
4.1
- noun
- /ˈsuːər ræt/
- Huge sewer rat turned out to be a chicken-eating hedgehog.
Examples
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Sewer rat!
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She was also scared; a sewer rat was standing by her feet, and she worried she might get bitten.
Blog text (26) -
Woman braves sewer rat to rescue dog from drainage hole.
Blog text (26) -
This is the most crafty Chicago sewer rat to ever crawl out from Richard Daley's breeding farm.
Blog text (28) -
They swarm like a pack of starving sewer rats, and their bites are a ton more deadly.
Blog text (5) -
This one is Rattles Rattles, which is the black or sewer rat, and this one is Rattles Norwegicus, the brown rat.
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An animal lover got the fright of her life when a huge "sewer rat" got stuck in her drain, only to discover it was a hungry hedgehog.
Blog text (3) -
Beverley Rodgers, of Harvester Road in Epsom, Surrey, panicked after she discovered what she thought was a "sewer rat bigger than a Mini Yorkshire Terrier" in her drain last Wednesday.
Blog text (3) -
As she walked down the alley, she saw a large sewer rat scurrying away from a pile of garbage.
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The sewer rat is notorious for thriving in dirty urban areas and often comes out at night.
Synonyms
1
4.2
A large brown rat that lives near people and often causes trouble
1
7.7
A common brown rat that lives near people, often found in cities and sometimes kept as a pet
1
2.1
A common rat that lives near people and damages food and buildings
Surface Forms
Morphology
The insult is a straightforward metaphor combining 'sewer' (a dirty, waste-filled place) and 'rat' (a despised rodent), so a learner who knows both words can easily infer it refers to a dirty or contemptible person. This follows common cross-linguistic derogatory patterns of likening people to animals in filthy settings, making the meaning directly accessible to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Sewer rat names a rat that lives in the sewer. Picture a brown rat scurrying through dark, wet tunnels under the streets, so the name simply describes where the animal lives.