prat n.1
1. (orig. UK Und.) a buttock, the buttocks; thus praty adj., full or heavy-buttocked.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Hickscorner Avii: I kepte a fayre shoppe of baudrye I had three wenches that were full praty . | |
| Caveat for Common Cursetours in (1907) 82: prat a buttocke. | |
| Groundworke of Conny-catching [as cit. c.1566]. | |
| Lanthorne and Candle-Light Ch. 1: The Canters Dictionary Pratt, a Buttock. | |
| O per se O N3: Their female furies come hotly and smoaking from thence, carrying about them Glymmar in the Prat [...] oftentimes there is Glymmar in the Jocky. | |
| Canting Song in Eng. Villainies (8th edn) O2: No Gentry Mort hath Prats like thine. | |
| Jovial Crew II i: First set me down here on both my Prats. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Eng. Rogue I 51: Prats, Thighs. | |
| Canting Academy (2nd edn) [as cit. 1665]. | |
| Academy of Armory Ch. iii item 68c: Canting Terms used by Beggars, Vagabonds, Cheaters, Cripples and Bedlams. [...] Prat, a Buttock, Thighs. | |
| Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Pratts, c. Buttocks. | |
| ‘Maunder’s Praise of His Strowling Mort’ in Musa Pedestris (1896) 33: [as cit. 1637]. | |
| Lives of Most Noted Highway-men, etc. I 209: He taught his Pupil a deal of canting Words, telling him [...] Prat, a thigh. | |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Pratts, buttocks. |
| New Dict. Cant (1795). | |
| Dict. Sl. and Cant. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785]. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
| ‘Two Penn’orth of Shag’ in Fanny Hill’s New Friskey Chanterr in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 350: He was smoking his pipe, in one hand very pat, / And with the other was rubbing his prat. | |
| Swell’s Night Guide 73: I pipes her stall to the glaze, and flashed her prat over the sill, and lagged on the pave. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Vocabulum. | |
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 67/1: Wat way’s this to live, I’d lyke to knoah, wi’ a ‘copper’ runnin’ at a feller’s ‘pratt’ all t’ time he’s out. | |
| in New Rev. 8 July n.p.: We ain’t to do nothing, [...] but to set down upon our prats [F&H]. | |
| Vocab. Criminal Sl. 66: pratt [...] the human rear. | |
| (con. 1880–1924) Anecdota erótica 41: Low as a snake’s prat. | |
| Bottom Dogs 233: His devil of an old man had driven the horse when he had a rusty nail in his hoof and wouldn’t even move his pratt from his wagonseat to see what was the trouble with the sufferin’ beast. | |
| World to Win 61: Then spake a hard-faced pauper, / Springing up from where he sat: / ‘Ye kin take yer Christmans pudding, sir, / And go stick it up yer pratt!’. | |
| Thieves Like Us (1999) 39: You can shoot a man through the prat with one. | |
| Life in a Putty Knife Factory (1948) 211: As Pratt’s pratt disappears through various doors. | |
| Man with the Golden Arm 335: What was he doing here lying flat on his pratt. | |
 | ‘On the Street of the Nine Black bastards’ in Banglestien’s Bar n.p.: She scratched her itchy pratt. | |
| Men from the Boys (1967) 76: You have a burr up your prat about the kid, I understand that, but... | |
| Imabelle 125: It was all he could do to keep from blowing off some chunks of her fancy yellow pratt. | |
| Out of the Burning (1961) 197: Those trying to wax the floor fell on their pratts, giggling. | |
| Flesh Peddlers (1964) 146: Sid [...] came down howling, tearing at is burning prat. | |
| Rage in Harlem (1969) 128: It was all he could do to keep from blowing off some chunks of her fancy yellow prat. | |
| (con. 1940s) Tattoo (1977) 193: He again addressed the slop jar, leisurely relieving himself, yawning, scratching his hairy prat through the gap in the back of his long johns. | |
| It (1987) 716: There was a woman who had fallen on her prat in a mudpuddle. | |
| Gay Sl. Dict. 🌐. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | (con. 1920s) Legs 215: When he followed I hightailed it for the bush with him at my prat. |
2. the vagina.
| Newes from the New Exchange 3: Her Daughter my Lady Prat […] is resolved to keep up the Trade. | |
| Swell’s Night Guide 107/1: Agility, see prat, quim, and c--t. | |
| in Limerick (1953) 124: The Mahatma on Mt. Himavat / Opined as he diddled a cat: / ‘She’s a far better piece / Than the Viceroy’s niece, / Who has also more fur on her prat’. | |
| DSUE (8th edn) 919/1: C.19–20. | |
| Lowspeak. |
3. a tinder-box.
| Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Prat [...] a Tinder-box or Touch-box. | |
| New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. | |
| , , , | | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
4. a young woman.
| DSUE (8th edn) 919/1: C.20. |
5. a general term of abuse; mainly a fool, an idiot.
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 4 Sept. 3/3: Prats of boys wot backs an ’oss / For half a crown or so; / Wen they should be a singin’ hims / Amd prayin’ doncherknown. | |
| ‘Ten Carats of Lead’ in Black Mask Stories (2010) 236/2: We have to [...] make sure no pratt of a lawyer can beat a conviction. | |
| Entertaining Mr Sloane Act I: Go on, you superannuated old prat! | |
| Sir, You Bastard 55: The old prat, she means to please. | |
| Habeus Corpus Act I: You little pratt. | |
| 5x5x5x5x5 3v: Bleedin college prat. | |
| ‘The Longest Night’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Come on now, don’t be a prat sir! | |
| Godson 120: ‘So may I offer you a glass of champagne to make up for me being such a prat?’. | |
| Lockie Leonard, Legend (1998) 47: He was a prat. [...] His mum was having some kind of a meltdown and he was stamping his foot like a complete buttface. | |
| Black Swan Green 125: Mrs Thatcher frazzled this twerpy prat in a bow tie on BBC1. | |
| Empty Wigs (t/s) 293: Staff was trying to choreograph this little tableau [...] Prat. |
6. (US) a hip pocket; thus prat-digger, a pickpocket; prat frisk, the theft of a wallet from a hip pocket; prat leather, a wallet kept in the hip pocket; prat poke, a wallet stolen from the hip pocket.
| Vocab. Criminal Sl. 66: Pratt, [...] a hip pocket. | |
| Keys to Crookdom 414: Pratt poke. Purse kept in hip pocket. Pratt frisk – stealing such a purse. | |
| (con. 1905–25) Professional Thief (1956) 11: I was riding in a streetcar in Chicago when I felt someone put his hand in my prat [hip pocket]. [Ibid.] 17: The word ‘prat’ originally meant ‘buttock’ but has been used by thieves for several centuries to refer to the hip pocket. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| et al. DAUL 162/2: Pratt, n. [...] 2. (Among pickpockets) The rear trousers pocket area. |
7. (US) a young homosexual man.
| Maledicta III:2 232: Still more words of this fucking vocabulary are pegboy, per anus, possesh = ‘possession’ of a hobo, pratt, prune pusher (pile driver, etc.). |
In derivatives
a tiny or insignificant amount.
| Sir, You Bastard 122: Who d’you reckon’s going to worry a pratful about you? |
stupid.
| Guardian G2 29 Sept. 22: It is full of annoying, prattish human beings who can’t string two sentences together. | |
| Indep. Rev. 18 June 5: The prattish Twinkle, her latest recruit. |
In compounds
1. (US) a catamite.
| Power-House 253: Murph’s his pratt boy. | |
| (con. 1948) Flee the Angry Strangers 358: He was becoming a pratt boy for her. | |
| Rumble on the Docks (1955) 65: Who the hell’s the kid [...] his prat boy? | |
| in Sweet Daddy 31: [He] wants the kid to be his pratt boy. | |
| (con. 1944) Dirty Dozen (2002) 149: That weasel who liked somebody’s pratboy. | |
| [ | | ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 Prat Boy — (British) Crude term for a paid hand who does odd jobs for the joints [...] Runaways or kids yet too young to work a joint or make a pitch]. |
2. (US) one who takes the punishment for another’s crime, a fall guy n. (1)
| (con. 1940s) Wax Boom 286: We died for it and got trapped in it for senile old men. And you were their pratt boy to make us do it, sir. | |
| Six-Eleven (1966) 207: You’re a pratboy, bottom man on the totem pole. | |
| At End of Day (2001) 45: His henchmen and lackeys, disgruntled prat-boys and spiteful ex-girlfriends. |
a fool, an incompetent.
| Mouthful of Rocks 93: ‘So what are we going to call him, then?’ [...] ‘I think pratface would be fine,’ said Mick, ‘till he’s proved himself’ . |
a humiliating defeat, a sudden failure.
| Generation of Vipers 138: Pride goeth before a pratfall. | |
| Venetian Blonde (2006) 254: If I take any pratfalls, partner, the scenery is coming down with me. |
(US Und.) the back pocket of one’s trousers.
| Wash. Post 3 July 3/1: If the rube hadn’t been fixed to stay away and Hoppy had got a finif fer dippin’ inter his prat-kick, he’d had plenty of time ter saw off his habit. | |
| Und. Speaks n.p.: Pratt kick, a pocket in the rear of trousers. | |
| et al. DAUL 163/1: Pratt-kick. (Among pickpockets) Rear trousers pocket. |
(US Und.) that member of a pickpocket gang who deliberately jostles the victim in order to ascertain the presence of a wallet in the back trouser pocket .
| ‘Badger Game’ in One Night Stands (2008) 23: He let one of the prat men bump him gently. |
In phrases
(US) to make every endeavour.
| Hoodlums (2021) 132: [H]e was breaking his prat to keep Jeannie comfortable. |
(US prison) to annoy someone, to drive someone to lose their temper.
| et al. DAUL 79/2: Get one’s pratt. To arouse one’s anger. | |
| Prison Sl. 90: Push Someone’s Key To cause someone to become extremely irritated and angry […] (Archaic: get one’s pratt). |
a version of head over heels as arse over ...
| Swell’s Night Guide 76: Vhy, she’s getting groggy on her pins, and if you don’t pipe rumbo, she’ll go prat over nut. |