rat-runn.
/ˈratrʌn/, U.S. /ˈrætˌrən/ΚΠ
1853 Independent Amer. (Platteville, Wisconsin) 15 July Paper money for hoarding up is rather dangerous—mice can make nests of it—fire will burn and leave no vestige behind—water will decompose, &c. We may sigh for the age (now passed) of gold and silver, but we cannot keep out or drive off the brood of Red Dog, Rat-Run, &c., which has already got into our circulation.
2.
a. A mazelike series of small passages by which rats move about their territory; such a passage or passages. Frequently in extended use (usually in derogatory sense).
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > means of travel > route or way > way, path, or track > track, trail, or path > [noun] > habitually used by animals > by specific animals
gallery1674
goat track1775
goat path1799
goat's path1799
rat-run1870
cattle-trail1877
cattle-pad1931
1870 Gentleman's Mag. Sept. 497 The barracks are a mouldy rat-run now.
1893 Baily's Mag. Oct. 253/1 The rat-runs had been stopped up, and he killed nearly..a hundred rats before he paused.
1924 J. Galsworthy White Monkey iii. i. 223 Hurrying along the rat-runs of the Tube, she slipped her hand into his pocket.
1953 Spectator 13 Feb. 194/2 She will be able, through her own will and capacity, to escape from the rat-run of her environment.
1980 I. Murdoch Nuns & Soldiers iii. 195 There were rat-runs of thought here into which Gertrude did not want to enter.
2001 Independent (Nexis) 27 Nov. 11 Stabbed by a gang of youths and left to die in..a dark rat-run on the derelict North Peckham Estate in south London.
b. Chiefly British. A minor, typically residential street used by drivers during peak periods to avoid congestion on main roads, or as a short cut.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > means of travel > route or way > way, path, or track > street > [noun] > side or cross
side street1617
by-street1684
return1756
off-street1793
cross-street1827
rat-run1966
1966 Times 15 Feb. 14/6 Those who make a rat-run out of the area by using it as a short cut.
1974 Country Life 24 Jan. 148/4 During weekday rush hours..a normally peaceful residential street can become a rat run.
1988 J. Allen Awaiting Developments (1989) v. 54 Morning and evening traffic was quite noisy and fumy in our road, which was used as a rat-run between two main roads.
2000 SMT June 24/2 Previously, some vehicles, especially taxis, used the site as a ‘rat-run’ in order to cut four miles off their journey across Nottingham.
Derivatives
(In sense 2b.)
ˈrat-runner n. chiefly British a driver who uses a rat-run.
ΚΠ
1973 Liverpool Echo 11 Dec. 11/3 The menace of ‘rat runners’—those people who use residential streets as short cuts but are endangering children playing, residents' parked cars and the peace of the area.
1980 Telegraph (Brisbane) 17 Jan. 3/5 There had been hundreds of complaints about ‘rat-runners’—motorists who take dangerous high speed, short cuts through residential streets.
2006 Bristol Evening Post (Nexis) 20 June 16 Villages will be brought to a virtual standstill by rat-runners..when the busy A4 is closed to traffic..next month.
ˈrat-running adj. and n. chiefly British (a) adj. (of a driver or vehicle) that uses rat-runs; (b) n. the use of rat-runs.
ΚΠ
1980 Telegraph (Brisbane) 17 Jan. 3/5 Brisbane's ‘rat-running’ motorists came in for a broadside from the city council's traffic and planning committee's chairman.
1985 Guardian (Nexis) 30 Mar. Roads are being re-routed to prevent rat running.
1990 Oxf. Times 11 May 4 The traffic includes a large number of ‘rat running’ vehicles which use the B4027 as a means to reach the A43 at Islip without waiting in..lengthy queues.
2003 Daily Tel. 19 Feb. 7/4 His fears of..mass rat-running..had proved groundless.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1853