Rat-a-tat

noun

noun ·3 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Alternative form of ratatat. alt-of, alternative

    "By longstanding, bipartisan tradition, decades of White House press secretaries have handed down a cheeky symbol of their job fielding rat-a-tat inquiries from feisty reporters: a flak jacket."

  2. 2
    a series of short sharp taps (as made by strokes on a drum or knocks on a door) wordnet

Example

More examples

"By longstanding, bipartisan tradition, decades of White House press secretaries have handed down a cheeky symbol of their job fielding rat-a-tat inquiries from feisty reporters: a flak jacket."

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.