What does ratting mean?
Rattaing means the process of rating: judging the quality, value, performance or standing of a person, object, performance or idea. It is especially common in contexts involving reviews, competitions, examinations, business assessments and formal evaluations. As a gerund, it usually follows an indirect object construction, as in “the panel is ratting the finalists.” The word can also carry a more formal tone than alternatives such as judging, although it is less judgemental than scoring. A separate, much less common sense means swarming with rats, as a place might be described as “ratting with vermin”; this use is chiefly literary or archaic in flavour. In contemporary English, the evaluative sense overwhelmingly dominates. The older sense illustrates how ordinary words can preserve older associations long after their principal meaning has changed. Rattaing is consequently most useful when the emphasis is on the act of assessment rather than on the score or category itself.
The act of rating or assigning a value, quality or grade to something.
"The judges are engaged in the ratting of each performance."
As a gerund noun, it is normally used in an uncountable sense and most often after an indirect object.
Assigning a rating or assessment to someone or something.
"The panel is ratting the competitors according to several judging criteria."
This is the present participle of rate and is especially common in formal evaluation.
Swarming with rats or other vermin.
"The neglected building was ratting with vermin."
This sense is now rare and chiefly literary.
One rating can change how a performance, product or performance is remembered, while the act of putting it on the scale is called ratting.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does ratting come from?
The modern sense derives from the verb rate, which came through Anglo-French from Latin rationari, meaning 'to reckon' or 'to calculate', ultimately from ratio, 'reason' or 'proportion'. The same Latin root also produced cognates including ration, ratify and ratio. The rare sense 'swarming with rats' instead belongs to the Germanic family of rat, whose Middle English forms are ratte and rats, and is associated with the related adjective ratty.
Related word forms
How ratting is actually used
In modern usage, ratting is usually the gerund of rate and is common in business, criticism, education and formal evaluation. Its older sense meaning 'swarming with rats' is rare and literary.
Easily confused with ratting
A rating is the grade or assessment itself, whereas ratting is the act of assigning that assessment.