How to Use ratty in a Sentence

ratty

adjective
  • Those shoes are getting pretty ratty.
  • The ratty club run by the nice Madam Qin is on its last legs.
    Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 June 2019
  • Is the trash can or ratty lawn chair still in the background?
    Nellah Bailey McGough, Southern Living, 29 June 2017
  • The show takes place on a bare stage with a couple of ladders on the sides and a ratty curtain at the back.
    Christopher Arnott, courant.com, 5 July 2017
  • But the Corinthian of the comics is also a little ratty.
    Christian Holub, EW.com, 16 Dec. 2022
  • This ratty sweater is going to power me through the day.
    Philip Galanes, New York Times, 13 May 2017
  • To atone for that addition, perhaps, the owners kept the ratty red vinyl on the stools at the counter.
    Pete Wells, New York Times, 6 Dec. 2022
  • Throw off those tired old sweatpants and ratty T-shirts.
    Ian Kerner, CNN, 17 May 2021
  • Replace their ratty old tool belt with this sleek one from Carhartt.
    Alex Rennie, Popular Mechanics, 2 Dec. 2022
  • Stuck with a ratty old one that leaks everywhere and doesn’t even keep your food and drinks cold?
    Emily Belfiore, Travel + Leisure, 28 June 2023
  • If your lawn looks ratty and is full of weeds, then rototilling it up is not a good idea.
    Jeff Lowenfels, Anchorage Daily News, 19 Aug. 2021
  • The parent birds look ratty by the time the kids have fledged, but a few months later they’re all turned out in fresh feathers.
    Murr Brewster, The Christian Science Monitor, 13 Sep. 2017
  • In fact, there were 50 percent more fish in the reefs around the birdy islands versus the ratty islands.
    Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 12 July 2018
  • Next up was a musician, a young guy with ratty blond hair.
    Kevin Roose, New York Times, 27 June 2018
  • This is not a workout shirt that's going to look ratty after a few months of wear.
    Heath Owens, Men's Health, 19 Aug. 2023
  • No dirty jeans or ratty sweatshirts hang off these bikes.
    Susan Tompor, Detroit Free Press, 5 Dec. 2019
  • Because there were my parents, on a ratty old loveseat With gadgets plugged in and a cheese plate to eat.
    Nate Anderson, Ars Technica, 1 Apr. 2023
  • By the time Belichick reached the lectern for his postgame presser, in a ratty T-shirt with the sleeves cut ragged like a dad out to mow the lawn, his smile had turned smirk.
    Greg Bishop, SI.com, 23 Jan. 2018
  • The food is fair to terrible, the rugs have a ratty feel but seem redeemed by that aura of high-class wear and tear.
    Aaron Gilbreath, Longreads, 24 Apr. 2018
  • Most people take out the trash in ratty mesh shorts, some inside-out T-shirt, and house slippers.
    Max Berlinger, GQ, 27 Sep. 2017
  • My kids went over to get the ball and our middle-age neighbor stood there in his ratty bathrobe and sprayed my children with his hose!
    Amy Dickinson, Detroit Free Press, 10 May 2020
  • Later that day, Rahul extracted a pair of ratty slippers from a garbage pile and wore them.
    Suhasini Raj, New York Times, 27 Sep. 2020
  • Otherwise, come on over, kick off your Manolo Blahniks or ratty flip-flops, and stay awhile.
    Liz Krieger, Good Housekeeping, 6 June 2023
  • Why are some of these dudes showing up to the cocktail party in ratty shirts when Tayshia is serving evening glamour?
    Kristen Baldwin, EW.com, 2 Dec. 2020
  • Her bare feet protruded from the bottom of her small, ratty blanket.
    Heather Knight, SFChronicle.com, 10 Dec. 2019
  • Made of breathable cotton-jersey, this tee-and-pant set is a simple upgrade from ratty shirts and sweats.
    Vanessa Powell, Men's Health, 23 Nov. 2022
  • Their flower spikes dying from the bottom up looked ratty, their dark green leaves anonymous.
    Perdita Buchan, The Christian Science Monitor, 24 May 2017
  • Ad says Wagner was sued for renting ratty apartments in the 1980s.
    John Baer, Philly.com, 9 Apr. 2018
  • In Chapter 8, Haring is still making art in a basement studio with ratty floors and actual rats.
    Jackson Arn, The New Yorker, 4 Mar. 2024
  • He was celebrated as a visionary with a furry thicket of messy hair and a fondness for ratty T-shirts and cargo shorts as his standard uniform.
    Todd Spangler, Variety, 2 Nov. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ratty.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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