rat with wings
1
9.8
- noun
- Offensive
:
plaga
- That guy is such a rat with wings!
Examples
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My little brother was being such a rat with wings at the party, never sitting still.
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People sometimes refer to city pigeons as rats with wings because of their abundance and mess.
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The pop-up ads on this website are true rats with wings, always appearing when I least expect them.
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I can't stand that rat with wings who keeps bothering me.
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Everyone in the office agrees that he's just a rat with wings for constantly spreading rumors.
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When she barged in uninvited and started talking loudly, I realized she was a rat with wings.
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His behavior during the meeting made him out to be nothing more than a rat with wings.
Synonyms
13
9.9
A rude word for a person who is cruel or dishonest
1
9.1
A person who behaves badly or annoys others, often as a joke
An insulting word for a person people think is dishonest or harmful
A person who betrays others and cannot be trusted
How Annoying
Surface Forms
Morphology
The negative sense is signalled by 'rat' (an insulting term for a despicable person), so a learner would likely recognise it as an insult, but the addition 'with wings' is a metaphorical intensifier whose precise implication (mobile, ubiquitous, persistently intrusive) is not directly predictable from the parts. Because the overall nuance requires figurative extension beyond straightforward composition and is language-specific, it is partially but not fully transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Rat with wings creates a strong image: a rat (something unwanted) with wings, so it can fly into places where it is not wanted. That's why people use it for someone or something that is 'annoying' or 'always showing up'.