ratshit

English

Etymology

From rat +‎ shit.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹæt.ʃɪt/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æt.ʃɪt

Noun

ratshit (uncountable)

1. (vulgar, literal or figurative) The excrement of a rat.
   • 1978, Larry McMurtry, Somebody′s Darling, published 2002, page 228:

     “Do you think they have ratshit in them?” Wynkyn asked. “Swan says most hamburgers have ratshit in them.”

   • 1984, Gabrielle Carey, Just Us, page 106:

     ‘Terry stop it! R—′s on, remember. If we get busted we′re ratshit. We′ll never see each other again.’

   • 1987, Stephen King, The Tommyknockers, unnumbered page:

     He slammed the choke in again. ‘No, don′t you stall, you ratshit plane!’

   • 1992, James P. Hogan, The Multiplex Man, published 2011, page 46:

     “Aw, who cares? It′s all going to hell anyway. You have your turn, eat, get drunk, screw; and fifty years from now none of it′ll matter a ratshit.”

   • 1995, Anne Cameron., Wedding Cakes, Rats and Rodeo Queens, page 61:

     So they pulled the furniture away from the wall and found a pile of little dried ratshit pellets behind the dresser.

2. (Australia, vulgar, slang) Nonsense, bullshit.
   • 1987, Janette Turner Hospital, After Long Absence: Dislocations, page 205:

     He also said that most of the kids at school were full of ratshit and that only one or two sheilas made the place any better than buggery.

   • 1995, Irene Moores, Arthur Murray, Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Watch Committee, Voices of Aboriginal Australia: Past, Present, Future, page 49,

     Do you see, Mr Bryant, why your old dream of getting to where you could really do something at last is going to be proved to be so much ratshit? Do you see why self-determination that isn′t really real is so much ratshit?

   • 2006, William J. Lines, Patriots: Defending Australia′s Natural Heritage, page 257:

     Kerin, one of the most pro-development Ministers, told his colleagues: ‘The EIS is ratshit and the guidelines are laughable’.

Derived terms

• go to ratshit

Translations

vulgar: excrement of a rat

• Finnish: rotanpaska
• German: Rattenscheiße f, Rattenkacke f
• Polish: gówno szczura n

Adjective

ratshit (comparative more ratshit, superlative most ratshit)

1. (Australia, New Zealand, vulgar, slang) Of very poor quality, badly substandard, useless; damaged or broken; unwell, exhausted.
   • 1987, Stuart Rintoul, Ashes of Vietnam: Australian Voices, page 94:

     In the morning I was ratshit, just a bundle of nerves.

   • 2005, Peter Temple, The Broken Shore, page 162:

     For a moment Cashin thought that he would be sick, that he would spew over Hopgood.
     ‘You′re looking ratshit,’ said Hopgood. ‘Even more ratshit.’

   • 2006, John Ford Noonan, “The Raunchy Dame in the Chineses Raincoat”, in Glenn Young, editor, The Best American Short Plays 2003-2004, page 114:

     When I was a little girl, my mother had this ratshit recorder, reel to reel, there were no cassettes then,... anyway, when I was lonely or hurt or scared, she'd play it for me. It was THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY.

   • 2009, Bryce Courtenay, The Story of Danny Dunn, published 2011, page 273:

     ‘That′s ratshit advice, Danny!’ Sammy, realising Bullnose was making a meal of it, cut in.

   • 2020 June 23, John Bolton, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 125:

     "The letter is written by the dictator of a rat-shit little country."

Anagrams

• athirst, rattish, tartish, tirthas