{
    "term": "rat",
    "partOfSpeech": "noun",
    "ox5000": true,
    "cefr": "b2",
    "definitions": [
        {
            "senseNumber": 1,
            "definition": "a small animal with a long tail, that looks like a large mouse, usually considered a pest (= an animal which is disliked because it destroys food or spreads disease)",
            "cefr": "b2",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "rat poison"
                },
                {
                    "text": "The police are all over town. He’s caught, like a rat in a trap."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Rats had gnawed through the wires."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The dog was a useful rat catcher in the warehouse."
                },
                {
                    "text": "a rat-infested cellar"
                }
            ],
            "topics": ["Animals"],
            "collocations": {
                "adjective": ["black", "brown", "lab"],
                "rat + verb": ["scurry", "scuttle", "gnaw"],
                "rat + noun": ["catcher", "droppings", "poison"]
            }
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 2,
            "definition": "an unpleasant person, especially somebody who treats their partner or friends badly, for example by leaving them or cheating them",
            "labels": "(informal, disapproving)",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "You mean he just walked out on her after fifteen years? What a rat!"
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": null,
            "definition": "used to talk about people who leave an organization, a company, etc. that is having difficulties, without caring about the people who are left",
            "labels": "(humorous, disapproving)",
            "examples": []
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": null,
            "definition": "to suspect that something is wrong about a situation",
            "labels": "(informal)",
            "examples": []
        }
    ],
    "pronunciations": {
        "uk": [
            {
                "pronunciation": "/ræt/",
                "audio": "ra/rat/rat__gb_1.mp3"
            }
        ],
        "us": [
            {
                "pronunciation": "/ræt/",
                "audio": "ra/rat/rat__us_1.mp3"
            }
        ]
    },
    "wordOrigin": "Old English ræt, probably of Romance origin; reinforced in Middle English by Old French rat. The verb dates from the early 19th cent."
}