Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) (orig. US, also ratsy) run-down, ramshackle, unkempt.

1867		‘Mark Twain’ Notebook (1935) 99: Village of Bethany [...] It is fearfully ratty – some houses – mud.
1872		‘Mark Twain’ Innocents at Home 386: A ratty old buzzard, he was.
1885		Donaldsville Chief (LA) 26 Sept. 1/6: McGinty couldn’t find any shoes to fit him, and came down in his old ratsy looking brogans.
1886		Lantern (N.O.) 23 Apr. 2: Such ratty bums I never did see before in my life.
1893		H. Lawson ‘The Darling River’ in Roderick (1972) 89: He is mostly a withered old madman, with [...] unkempt hair and beard, and a ‘ratty’ expression.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 67: Old Dooley had the mangiest, rattiest dog act in the business.
1917		‘Ian Hay’ Carrying On 41: They [i.e. dug-outs] haven’t been occupied for some months, so you may find them, a bit ratty.
1929		D. Hammett ‘Fly Paper’ Story Omnibus (1966) 47: The rattier-looking one said, ‘He didn’t take a taxi’.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 649: The chair [...] occupied by a pimpled, ratty-looking guy.
1941		(con. 1910s) A. Lomax Mister Jelly Roll (1952) 146: So I said, ‘Okay, Peyton, goodbye to you and your ratty town.’.
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 22: A bunch of ratty-looking junkies come to hit him for a morphine script.
1957		G. Kersh Fowlers End (2001) 11: [He] was always intrigued by any vacant drill-hall, barn or warehouse, however ratty.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Mama Black Widow 86: She’d come down the walk and into our ratty flat.
1976		P. Theroux Family Arsenal 250: These ratty little pamphlets with coffee stains on the covers.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 173: Rancid and ratty would best describe the atmosphere of the Everhard Baths.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 200: The flat finished white stucco walls, ratty Persian carpets in the hallway and mahogany doors almost had me convinced.
1993		Tarantino & Avery Pulp Fiction [film script] 54: Ratty blue gym-pants, a worn-out but comfy tee-shirt.
1999		Guardian Rev. 25 June 2: Her still-long and ratty hair is loose.
2003		N. Green Angel of Montague Street (2004) 230: Crazy old white dude [...] wearing jeans as old as he is, ratty old sweatshirt.
2008		R. Price Lush Life 211: The increasingly ratty-looking makeshift shrine .
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] I picked up the ratty blonde wig.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 22: [H]e dutifully found a ratty carpet on one of the upper floors.
2016		V. McDermid Out of Bounds (2017) 396: She [...] fished a packet of cheap cigarettes out of the pocket of her ratty cardigan.
2019		C.D. Rosales Word Is Bone [ebook] There was a ratty couch, a coffee table, and a TV, all in a row on the carpet.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 59: He’s in a ratty T-shirt.
2021		P. Papathanasiou Stoning 28: Using the ratty remains of a sponge, Sparrow mopped at the base.

(b) (US) drunk.

1902		Truth (Brisbane) 14 Dec. 1/5: [A] ratty youth drove hurriedly up to Melbourne gaol and asked the warder who opened the gate to take him in and hang him. [...] The youth probably had a drop too much.
1904		C. Connors Bowery Life [ebook] You don’t know dat a Dago’s ’n Italian, ’n a Monk’s a Chink. Say, your dead ratty. A Chink, why dat’s a Chinee.

(c) (US) of a person, run-down, exhausted.

1968		‘Hy Lit’ Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 33: ratty – The physical state of being sick, exhausted [...] and without the drive to T.C.B.
2008		Sun. Times (S.Afr.) Travel 27 Jan. 3: At night, drained and ratty, we sat in a restaurant near the river.

(d) unkempt, disordered.

1965

T. Wolfe Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (1966) x: Lower class creeps and nutballs with dermatitic skin and ratty hair.

(a) (Aus./N.Z.) mad, eccentric; thus rats onratty on/over, infatuated with.

1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 16 Oct. 9/1: You know he’s ‘rats’ on the girls himself.
1893		H. Lawson ‘The Man Who Forgot’ in Roderick (1972) 158: Hundreds of sensible men went mad over that there Tichborne case [...] and you’re ratty enough already.
1897		E. Townsend ‘The House of Yellow Brick’ Near a Whole City Full 184: I feel terrible like a pipe now [...] no, I won’t smoke, or get ratty if you’ll stay.
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 184: Already the Beauties had decided that Connie was ‘as ratty as rabbits’.
1914		H. Lawson ‘I’ll Bide’ in Roderick (1972) 828: They called their house ‘I’ll Bide’, so they muster been ratty.
1924		H.L. Wilson Professor How Could You! 312: A ratty old fuss-budget.
1934		N. Lindsay Cautious Amorist 166: The idiot’s gone ratty over you.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 59: Ratty, stupid, silly. Ratty over (a person), infatuated with.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 64: ‘I like pictures of dogs,’ I told her. ‘Lots of people do,’ she said. ‘But I don’t want to paint them.’ ‘But they would sell.’ [...] It seemed ratty, if you ask me.
1963–74		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 33: Some of the Aussie sheilahs get a bit ratty when they hit London.
1973		F. Huelin ‘Keep Moving’ 21: ‘It’s a wonder they don’t go ratty’.
1984		Benjamin & Pearl Limericks Down Under 49: A ratty old chap of Elaine / Would never go out in the rain.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 92/1: ratty silly, stupid or slightly eccentric.
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 43: Bloody Tony Barron and his ratty health tips will be the death of me.

(b) irritated, annoyed, obstreperous.

1897		W.T. Goodge ‘Great Aus. Slanguage’ in Baker Aus. Lang. (1945) 117: When he’s bright he’s got a napper, / But he’s ratty when he’s daft.
1899		E. Townshend ‘Chimmie’s Cold Strategy’ 12 Jan. [synd. col.] When she gets awful ratty she can’t talk in English.
1901		Boy’s Own Paper 24 Aug. 750: Instead of being worried and ratty about the lessons for the next day.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 16 Sept. 4/7: The ole woman, me mother, was fair ratty agin the stage.
1910		Magnet 27 Aug. 6: Dutton was very touchy, and he would get ratty.
1923		J. Bowes Jackaroos 239: Oh, I’m not feeling ratty over that.
1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 127: Whenever Mr Rhys was ratty with the signallers, Mr Pardew was ratty with the snipers.
1938		N. Lindsay Age Of Consent 210: It’s only a ratty old bitch talking.
1940		M. Marples Public School Slang 3: ANGRY [...] ratty, in a rat, to lose one’s rat: probably from irate.
1958		A. Sillitoe Sat. Night and Sun. Morning 146: He didn’t need to get so ratty.
1964		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 91: I got twenty-four whores that knows I’m death on a bitch when she’s ratty. / I could tell them to shit and they’d pull down their drawers and say, ‘What color, daddy?’.
1970		S. Naipaul Fireflies 164: You are getting ratty in your old age.
1979		J. Morrow Confessions of Proinsias O’Toole 138: She had left in a very ratty mood.
1982		A. Bleasdale ‘Jobs for the Boys’ Boys from the Blackstuff (1985) [TV script] 62: He got a bit ratty with me.
1998		G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 332: She was in a ratty mood. Hufty. A face like thunder.
2001		A. Sillitoe Birthday 97: He just got ratty and took it out on me.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 139: He’s never the most how-you-say effusive of dudes [...] Right now he’s just plain ratty.