rat-a-tat

noun

ˈra-tə-ˌtat 

variants or rat-a-tat-tat

ˌra-tə-ˌta(t)-ˈtat 

: a rapid succession of knocking, tapping, or cracking sounds

Examples of rat-a-tat in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But the audio continues for five minutes, and the rat-a-tat of gunfire does not stop. —Farnaz Fassihi, New York Times, 5 Apr. 2025

The energy of the performances — from Aduba’s deadpan forthrightness to the more antic work by comedians like Marino and Jane Curtin (as the president’s grouchy mother-in-law) — and the rat-a-tat style of all the conversations carries the day. —Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 20 Mar. 2025

Sorkin's high-IQ, rat-a-tat cocktail of noble sentiment, scalpel-sharp satire, and sports-as-a-metaphor-for-life drama was fueled by an innate love of language and a palpable fondness for the people who craft it for a living. —EW.com, 19 Feb. 2025

Gone are the rat-a-tat story counts and main focus on the anchor delivering the headlines. —Brian Steinberg, Variety, 27 Jan. 2025

The rat-a-tat back and forth when Sonny gives Yancy the gig, leading up to the reveal that the dude died on duty, is hilarious. —Erin Qualey, Vulture, 14 Aug. 2024

And then once Vince became super interested, there is not a comedy writer, actor, comedian of a certain age that wasn’t influenced by the way that Vince Vaughn does the rat-a-tat kind of comedy. —Nellie Andreeva, Deadline, 9 Oct. 2024

Any conversation about Din Tai Fung, the Taiwanese restaurant that opened this summer in a sunken plaza near Times Square, quickly descends into a numerical rat-a-tat. —Helen Rosner, The New Yorker, 15 Sep. 2024

There are boys, men, grandparents, and local color, but Lorelei and Rory Gilmore are the twin suns of this solar system—and their love, humor, and rat-a-tat dialogue delight. —John Ortved, Vogue, 29 June 2024

Word History

Etymology

imitative

First Known Use

1681, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for rat-a-tat

• acrobat
• autocrat
• automat
• bundesrat
• bureaucrat
• butterfat
• caveat
• chemostat
• copycat
• cryostat
• democrat
• diplomat