Twice today I've heard people make rat references. The first was (and excuse the, ah, French):

...smart as a shithouse rat

and the second was

...like a rat up a drainpipe

Are these similies/metaphors used in your world(s), and does anyone know anything about their origins?

The one I'm familiar with:

I couldn't give a rat's arse for (what ever is being floccinaucinihilipilificated).

Yes, rat up a drainpipe is a very familiar saying - I take it to be based on straightforward observation of their extraordinarily nimble antics...?

--like a cornered rat--

for some one in a dangerous situation, and you don't have an idea of what they might do, but think only something bad can happen..

"I smell a rat..." when suspicious of something said or some action that is proposed. No idea where it came from, I think its been around for ages!
wow

We have the usage of "rat" as an informer (grass, I believe it's called in the UK), which, in recent years has become a verb (see recent threads about verbing nouns), as in "to rat someone out." My father in law used to combine this with "fink" (meaning the same thing, but a word derived from labor unions) to make "ratfink". (Fink has also been verbed, as in "to fink on someone). My, my -- who would fink it?

it's just a rat race.

It's a worrisome day when even the rats are fleeing the ship.

Thanks folks - keep 'em coming. I feel a compilation coming on, although who, apart from me, might be interested is a mystery.

"Rats!!" -Charlie Brown

I've heard people described as looking like a drowned rat when they have come in from torrential rains.

or that they have hair like rats tails!-- one my mother used on me, till in the mid 60's, having long straight hair, with out a bit of curl was in style.. of course those were also the years i was maturing, and as i did, my hair got slightly curly! not like sibs, who from infancy looked like Shirley Temple's, albeit with black hair.

Still in the rodent category but cuter :
Quiet as a mouse.
Nervous as a mouse in a room full of cats.
The Mouse ran up the clock, hickory dickory dock.
Then, there is Aesop's "The Lion and the Mouse" with its famous line "No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted."
If that's not enough, then how about : "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse" with its observation : "A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety."
Finally -- lest you think I have abandoned the main topic : check out Robert Browning's poem "The Pied Piper of Hamlin" which mentions more rats than you can shake a stick at! wow

flash as a rat with a gold tooth

Was it James Cagney who said "why, you dirty rat" through clenched teeth? This was a bit before my time but I seem to recall something of the sort.

check out Robert Browning's poem "The Pied Piper of Hamlin" which mentions more rats than you can shake a stick at!

Aah, what memories! I had a stand-up argument with my fifth form English teacher about this poem - she insisted first that Transylvania was somewhere in North America, then North Africa, then that Romania was an SSR, part of the USSR, first she said de jure, then de facto. This at a time when Romania was a maverick among Eastern Bloc nations. That, together with the great difficulty I had, even then at the height of my love affair with the German language, wrapping my tongue around Hameln, and my identifying with the lame little boy, mean that this opus is indelibly inscribed on what is often mistaken for my mind.

Lapsed Lasagne quoted: flash as a rat with a gold tooth.

I sure haven't heard that one before. Thanks to all the contributors so far. Keep them cards and letters rolling in, folks.

Zaphod Beeblebrox once said: "I wouldn't trust myself further than I could spit a rat." In the TV series, that came out as "I wouldn't trust him as far as I could spit a dead rat" which phrase I use often.

In reply to:

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Lapsed Lasagne quoted: flash as a rat with a gold tooth.

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but abstained from ratatouille.

Ratbag?

Ratty for in a bad mood.

Bingley

I was expecting the ozzies to chime in with 'ratbag'; how about rat-kangaroo (or kangaroo rat).

ratatouille? rataplan!

Ratatouille ? Rataplan ?

Rat-a-tat-tat.

rataplan

I vaguely remember a chant that went something like: "rataplan, rataplan, rataplan -plan -plan" What the hell is rataplan, tsuwm?

What the hell is rataplan, tsuwm?

Even rodents suffer from architects.

> What the hell is rataplan, tsuwm?

choose one:
a) the iterative sound of beating: rat-a-tat-tat
b) informing on a heist
c) rodent architects

It is also French for Rat-tat-tat.

On the subject of rats, one gone missing in NY–(forget, "How could you possible know?")

The W Grace building on Lexington Avenue and 42nd St. –near to Grand Central Terminal and Grand Central Station*– had a marque– a metal awning type marque, that was supported by 4 iron (steel? what ever) rods made to look like hawsers, with those conical devises (perhaps Cap't Kiki knows the name of them?) meant to keep ship board rats on the ship and land lubber rats on land.

On one of the rods, was a lovely rat. I don't know if she had an official name, (I always called her gracie) but she's gone!

We all seem to have rat similes, but do any of you have ornamental rats? Or missing rats? Or do any of you know of gracie?

*obviously not the same place