hood rat
5
9.9
- noun
- /hʊd ræt/
- Offensive
:
[término despectivo] joven del barrio asociado a la delincuencia
- The movie portrayed the main character as a hood rat who struggled to escape his tough upbringing.
Examples
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You blind-date me with a little hood rat named "Bunz"?
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You ain't nothing but a hood rat.
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Meanwhile, that little hood rat is living your dream, man.
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You probably thought I was some old common hood rat, huh?
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- That hood rat skipped out on my birthday.
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That hood rat went to the black-and-white party and she did not bring me.
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But we ain't nothing but hood rats.
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There's that hood rat emerging again.
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Boy, ain't nobody hating on you and your little hood rat friends, Pullard.
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She called him a hood rat because he was always getting into trouble around the neighborhood.
Synonyms
71
8.9
A young person who does violent street crimes
38
7.6
A young person who steals, fights, or causes trouble with a gang
31
9.9
A person who joins a criminal gang and often takes part in violent acts
1
9.9
A young person who behaves in a threatening or criminal way
Antonyms
How Delinquent
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound partly transparently combines 'hood' (slang for an urban neighborhood) with a derogatory use of 'rat' to signal a negative person from that neighborhood, so a learner can infer it refers to a disparaged person associated with the 'hood'. However, the exact social and slang connotations (derogatory, street-culture/delinquent implication) are culturally specific and not fully predictable from the constituents alone, requiring prior exposure.
Etymology
Hood rat likely comes from joining hood (short for 'neighborhood') and rat, an animal that lives in the streets and has a bad reputation. One popular idea is that the image of a 'rat' in the 'hood' was used to mean someone from a poor city area who hangs out on the streets or breaks the rules, so today it is often used as a negative word for that kind of person.