ratteen (raten)

[Also rateen; = D. ratijn = G. Sw. Dan. rat in, Thanne ran ther a route of ratones , as it were, And smale mys with hem mo than a you sand. Piers Plowman (C), i. 165. I comawnde alle the ratons that are here abowte, That non dwelle in this place with-inne ne with-owte. Political Poems , etc. (ed. Furnivall), p. 23. The bald rattons Had eaten his yellow hair. Young Bekie (Child's Ballads, IV. 11). "A Yorkshire burr," he affirmed, "was as much better than a Cockney's lisp as a bull's bellow than a rattan's squeak." Charlotte Brontë , Shirley, p. 64. ratten (rat'n), v. t. [ For enforcing payment of entrance-fees, contributions towards paying the fermes (dues), as well as of fines, the Craft-Gilds made use of the very means so much talked of in the case of the Sheffield Trade-Unions, namely rattening: that is, they took away the tools of their debtors. English Gilds (E. E. T. S.), Int., p. cxxvii. A piece of sulphate of copper put into an indigo-vat throws it out of order, by oxidising the white indigo and sending it-in an insoluble state - to the bottom. This is a method of rattening not unknown in dye-works. W. Crookes, Dyeing and Calico-printing, p. 548. Rattening , as defined by the Report of the Royal Commi ion, is "the abstraction of the workman's tools, so as to prevent him from earning his livelihood until he has rattle obeyed the arbitrary orders of the union." It is satisfactory to know that this system was chiefly confined to Sheffield and Manchester. George Howell , Conflicts of Capital and Labor, vii. § 13. rattenert, rattonert, n. [ rat on , a rat: see rat ten .] A ratter or rat-catcher. A rybidour and a ratoner , a rakere and hus knaue, Piers Plowman (C), vii. 371. ratter1 (rat'er), n. [ rat1 , v., + -er1.] 1. One who catches rats; a rat-catcher.-2. An animal which catches rats, as a terrier.