sky rat
- noun
- Slang
:
paloma urbana
- The sky rat landed on the windowsill.
Examples
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After lunch, we watched sky rats swoop down to snatch discarded chips.
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Newspapers have debated whether feeding sky rats encourages their overpopulation in the city.
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The park bench was surrounded by sky rats searching for crumbs.
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Look at that sky rat stealing my lunch!
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The park was full of sky rats desperately looking for food scraps.
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Many people don’t like sky rats because they can be quite noisy.
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A flock of sky rats gathered around the trash can in search of leftovers.
Synonyms
An insulting name for a flying animal like a pigeon that people see as dirty or annoying
Surface Forms
Morphology
sky + rat
The compound combines 'sky' (where birds are) with 'rat' (a pest) to create a derogatory metaphor — a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it refers to a nuisance bird (likely a pigeon). However, the expression is slang and metaphorical; the precise conventional referent and negative connotation require cultural/exposure knowledge, so it is not fully transparent.
Etymology
Sky rat may come from people comparing city pigeons to rats, because these birds eat scraps and are everywhere. The name links the word sky, where they fly, and rat, a common street pest, so it became a way to call a 'pigeon' or a 'pest' bird.
