rasure (s as zh)

(Lat. rasura, from rasum, sup. of rado =to scrape.] 1. The act of scraping or shaving; the act of erasing; erasure. chin, bench; go, gem; thin, this; 2. A mark in writing by which a letter, word, or other part of a document is erased or effaced; an erasure. "Such a writing ought to be free from any vituperation of rasure." -Auliffe: Parergon. răt, *ratt, *ratte, subst . [A. S. ræt ; cogn. with O. Dut. ratte ; Dut. rat ; Dan. rotte ; Sw. råtta ; Ger. ratte , ratz ; Ital. rat to ; Sp. rato ; Fr. rat ; Low Lat. ratus, rato; Gael. & Ir. rad an; Bret. raz. Probably from the same root as rase or raze, razor, and rodent.] I. Ordinary Language : 1. Lit.: In the same sense as II. 2. Figuratively: (1) One who deserts his party (especially in politics), as rats are said to forsake a falling house or a doomed ship. ( Eng .) "He [Str afford] was the first of the rats , the first of those statesmen whose patriotism has been only the coquetry of political prostitution, and whose profligacy has taught governments to adopt the old maxim of the slave-market, that it is cheaper to buy than breed, to import defenders from an opposition than to rear them in a ministry."-Macaulay: E ay; Hallam. (2) A workman who takes work for le than the regular wages current in the trade; also a workman who takes employment at an establishment where the regular hands have struck; a term of opprobrium applied to non-union men by members of trades unions; spec if. to non-union printers. II. Zool .: A name popularly applied to the larger murines, but more strictly applicable to two species: (1) The English Black Rat ( Mus rattus ), and the Brown, or Norway Rat ( M. decuman us ). The former is a small, lightly-built animal, about seven inches long, with a slender head, large ears, and a thin scaly tail, longer than the body. In temperate climates the color is a bluish-black lighter on the belly. This species is represented in warmer climates by the Alexandrian Rat ( M. alex and rin us , Geoff., better known as M. rattus rufescens , see Proc. Zool. Soc . , 1886, p. 57), with a gray or reddish back, and white under-surface. By later naturalists it is considered as only a variety. The albino and pied cats, kept as pets, also belong to this species, which had its home in India, and penetrated thence to almost every part of the world, driving out the native rats, and to be, in its turn, exterminated by the Brown Rat (probably a native of China, where a similar species, M. humiliatus , is still found). The Brown Rat is much more heavily built than the Black Rat, grayish-brown above and white beneath; ears, feet, and tail flesh-colored. Melanism often occurs, but such animals may be readily distinguished by ordinary specific differences from the true Black Rat. Length of head and body eight or nine inches long, tail shorter. Both the species are omnivorous, predaceous, and extremely fecund, breeding four or five times in the year, the female producing from four to ten blind, naked young, which breed in their turn at about six months old. M. fuscipes is the Brown-footed Rat of Australia; Nesokia bandicota , the Bandicoot, or Pig-rat; and N. benga lens is the Indian Field Rat. [KANGAROO RAT.] To smell a rat : To be suspicious; to have an idea or suspicion that all is not right; to suspect some underhand plot or proceeding.