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rat

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

1) A contemptuous term used by printers, to denote a man who works under price.


TO RAT

2) Among printers, to work under price. Among politicians, to desert one's party and go over to the opposite one. The term is used both in England and America. The London Athenæum, in a review of Campbell's Lives of the Lord Chancellors, in speaking of Wedderburn, afterwards Lord Loughborough, says:

He panegyrized the liberty of the press; sided with America; clamored for the rights of juries; acted the part of liberal and demagogue to admiration; all the while having his eye on the Solicitor-Generalship--for which, in the fulness of time, he ratted to Lord North in the most shameless manner.--Dec. 18, 1847.

Great was the indignation when the result was known; and this must be confessed to be one of the most flagrant cases of ratting recorded in our party annals.--Campbell, Lord Chancellors.

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

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