prat v.2
1. Und. uses [prat n.1 (1)].
(a) (UK Und.) to eject, to throw out; to leave.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 8/1: The ‘flat’ [...] as a consequence, ‘blews’ his ‘sugar,’ after which he is ‘pratted’ outside the mob, and left to reflect on the immutability of human affairs. | |
| Newcastle Courant 18 Nov. 5/2: That’ll give us time to get the sticks together before pratting. |
(b) (UK Und.) to sit down, to make someone sit down.
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 9/1: We ‘pratted’ ourselves in the corner as much out of sight of ‘cops,’ should they come in, as possible. [Ibid.] 19/2: I’m blest if she ain’t going to ‘pratt’ right beside us. [Ibid.] 103/2: I had ‘piped’ a London ‘copper’ [...] and afraid that she might be recognised as a London ‘gun,’ had pratted her into the tavern next door. |
(c) (UK/US Und.) in pickpocketing, to back gently into the victim, pushing them against the primary pickpocket (wire n.2 ) who actually takes the wallet, money etc.
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 30/1: Just then the ‘office’ was ‘slung’ to ‘close in’ and ‘pratting’ Joe being in front, along with Jack, so as to choke up the passage. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Parole Chief 245: You prat the guy around. That means you push him around, edge him around, not hard, gentle, just enough to distract his attention. Also to get him into position [...] for the score. | |
| Cross of Lassitude 101: The termites of the life [...] who ‘prat’ and ‘fan’ and ‘shade the stick’ in crowds. |
2. as lit. or fig. teasing [prat n.1 (1) or prat n.2 ].
(a) (US black) of a woman, to play sexually hard to get, to tease physically [note prat n.1 (2)].
| Dict. Afro-Amer. Sl. 93: Prat, to play coy. | |
| Black Jargon in White America 76: prat v. to pretend to refuse; fake a rejection. |
(b) (US) of a confidence trickster, to play with the potential victim.
| et al. DAUL 162/2: Pratt. [...] 2. To take advantage of, as of an abject flunkey; to abuse or cheat. | |
| Pimp 34: The ‘Murphy’ player will ‘prat’ him to enhance his desire. |
3. (US Und.) to have sexual intercourse; esp. homosexual anal intercourse.
| et al. DAUL 162/2: Pratt. 1. To have sexual intercourse with, normally or – usually – abnormally. |
In phrases
to act foolishly, to act in an irritating manner.
| Scouting for Boys in Best Radio Plays (1984) 193: Are you intending to prat around in there all day while I’m being insulted? |
1. (gay) to indulge, actively or passively, in anal intercourse.
| ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants. | |
| Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 36: pratt (for or fall) (v.): To allow pedication. (n.): A pedicant. | |
| Queens’ Vernacular 153: pratt for somebody to bend over for a sodomist. |
2. (US drugs) in weak use of sense 1, to work for in an subordinate role.
| (con. 1948) Flee the Angry Strangers 432: Buster’s masquerade as a big-time dope peddler, [...] ‘pratting’ for an unseen pusher who paid him just enough for a big front. |
(Aus.) to push oneself forward, to barge in.
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 9 Feb. 1/1: The succs of the barmaids’ picnic was a painful blow to all who predicted failure [and] many who sniffed at the proposal endeavored to ‘pratt’ themselves in when success was assured. | |
| Truth (Perth) 31 Oct. 1/6: Lots of ladies persist in pratting themselves into smoking compartments, thus depriving a man of his weed. | |
| (con. WWI) Soldier and Sailor Words 229: Prat One’s Frame In, To: To intrude. To join others uninvited. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 1 May 6: They did not prat their pushful frames / To function free and fatty. | |
| Argus (Melbourne) 23 Dec. 65/4: But where, oh where, did we get ‘Pratting in one’s frame’, ‘Doing one’s block,’ ‘Getting into a yike,‘ [and] ‘Snifter’. | |
| I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 237/2: prat in – to butt in. | |
| Big Smoke 177: I don’t want this mug pratting into our lives. | |
| Full Cycle 178: You swab up the counter and straighten the shelf and don’t pratt your frame into their conversation. |
(US Und.) for a pickpocket’s assistant to push the victim so as to place them in the correct position for the theft.
| (con. 1905–25) Professional Thief (1956) 17: One of the operations in picking pockets is to ‘prat a man in,’ which means that one of the stalls backs into a prospect and pushes him around gently in order to get him in a proper position. | |
| Headless Lady (1987) 46: One of them prats the mark in, and as soon as the wire gets the okus he weeds it to another stall. | |
| Monster Midway (1954) 4: ‘To prat the mark in’ means to jostle him into a favorable position. |