"All right, you needn't be ratty about it!
"Fortitude"
Hugh Walpole
He was polite enough, so far as what he had to say, but it was the mean look in his ratty little eyes that grated.
"Shorty McCabe"
Sewell Ford
On the 2nd September a fierce southwester drove Admiral Oquendo in his galleon, together with one of the great galeasses, two large Venetian ships, the ratty and the Balauzara, and thirty-six other vessels, upon the Irish coast, where nearly every soul on board perished, while the few who escaped to the shore-notwithstanding their religious affinity with the inhabitants-were either butchered in cold blood, or sent coupled in halters from village to village, in order to be shipped to England.
"History of the United Netherlands, 1586-89, Vol. II. Complete"
John Lothrop Motley Last Updated: February 7, 2009