ratty

adj

Etymology: From rat + -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of’ forming adjective).

1. Resembling or characteristic of a rat; ratlike.
2. Infested with rats.
3. In poor condition or repair.

   “We got an old tin lantern, and a butcher knife without any handle, and a bran-new Barlow knife worth two bits in any store, and a lot of tallow candles, and a tin candlestick, and a gourd, and a tin cup, and a ratty old bed-quilt off the bed, […] and just as we were leaving I found a tolerable good curry-comb, and Jim he found a ratty old fiddle-bow, and a wooden leg.”

   “The Marcher lord was still clad in his ratty black cloak and dented breastplate with its chipped enamel lightning.”

4. Crazy, mad; ridiculous; slightly strange, eccentric; also (followed by about, on, or over), attracted to, infatuated with.
5. Annoyed, bad-tempered, irritable.

   “He got bad, he got ratty, he would take it out on people around him. He was mean when it turned against him.”

noun

1. Synonym of knock down ginger (“prank of knocking on a front door and running away”).