rat snake
1
5.3
- noun
- /ræt sneɪk/
- US
:
serpiente rata
- Wouldn't you know? We walk the long way back to camp, and Heitman traps a black rat snake next to the path.
- a black rat snake
- a three-foot rat snake
- a foot-long rat snake
And you know, in New York we had, you know, black rat snakes, Garter snakes, whatever.
- And you know, in New York we had, you know, black rat snakes, Garter snakes, whatever.
Examples
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Rat snakes aren't that big.
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Gray rat snakes are dark to light gray with darker gray or brown blotches.
Blog text (12) -
- I think it was a rat snake.
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Just a little rat snake.
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What I did is replace them with rat snakes to keep the mouse population down.
Blog text (14) -
It's a rat snake!
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There were crows in the limbs above him, three of them, and they were harrying a rat snake they had discovered up in the tree.
Fiction book (1997) -
The farmer introduced rat snakes to control the rodent population in his fields.
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While hiking in the woods, we spotted a rat snake sunbathing on a rock.
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In many regions, rat snakes are valued for their ability to manage pests like mice and rats.
Synonyms
A group of snakes that are not poisonous, like rat snakes, found in North America and Eurasia
A snake that is not venomous and lives in North America and Eurasia and eats rats and mice
A large not venomous black snake that lives in eastern North America and is often called the black rat snake
A large shiny black snake from North America that is not venomous and eats rats and mice
A non-venomous Asian rat snake with a long thin body that moves quickly
A large snake from South and Southeast Asia that lives near people, is not poisonous, and eats rats
A large snake from South and Southeast Asia that is not poisonous and often enters buildings to catch mice
A large harmless reddish snake from the southern United States that lives on farms and in woods
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound 'rat snake' is directly interpretable as a type of snake associated with rats — i.e., a snake that preys on or is commonly found near rats — so a B1 learner who knows 'rat' and 'snake' can infer the meaning. This noun+noun compounding is a regular, compositional pattern found across languages, making the expression transparent.
Etymology
The noun rat snake comes from a simple image: the part rat names the animal it hunts and snake names the hunter. These snakes often live in barns and climb trees to catch 'rats' and 'mice', so the name now means a snake that is not poisonous and eats these pests.