How to Use rat-a-tat in a Sentence

rat-a-tat

noun
  • Still have that rat-a-tat-tat on the sideline.
    — Cam Inman, Mercury News, 28 Jan. 2026
  • Matt and Pete had stuck around to rat-a-tat their vamp.
    — Literary Hub, 13 Feb. 2026
  • The regular-size kid that followed in their wake kept up a constant rat-a-tat on his drum.
    — Lee Marshall, Condé Nast Traveler, 9 May 2026
  • The rat-a-tat-tat of victory after victory has tailed off with this team.
    — Tim Ellis, Forbes.com, 4 Aug. 2025
  • But Kilgo had been used to the rat-a-tat-tat of constant newspaper deadlines.
    — Scott Fowler, Charlotte Observer, 28 Jan. 2026
  • Only the heel of a woman's oxford pump could make that sort of solid but somehow dainty rat-a-tat-tat.
    — Danielle Parker, CBS News, 9 June 2026
  • Daily Variety reflected the rat-a-tat newspaper style of the era in which it was born.
    — William Earl, Variety, 14 Oct. 2025
  • The very utterance of the pairing — Stabler to Biletnikoff — has a nice rat-a-tat-tat sound to it.
    — Steve Buckley, New York Times, 2 June 2026
  • Her ability to sell the most demented line readings with a doe-eyed smile—and to thrive in the show’s rat-a-tat pacing—gave 30 Rock some of its funniest moments.
    — Keaton Bell, Vogue, 2 Jan. 2026
  • In his mesmerizing, rat-a-tat, expletive-riddled style, Evans nonchalantly recalls the almost unbelievable trajectory of his life, leaving the reader barely able to catch her breath.
    — Hadley Hall Meares, Vanity Fair, 9 Feb. 2026
  • Once Ida is revived, Buckley is rife with tics and guttural asides, switching between rat-a-tat mobster slang and Shelley’s flowery English prose like some postmodern literary Gollum.
    — David Sims, The Atlantic, 6 Mar. 2026
  • It’s also brilliantly arranged, from the chiming guitar on the intro to the way the rhythm section makes its entrance (McCartney-esque bassline and rat-a-tat snare) before pulling back on the chorus, where Ruess’ vocal appears to be floating in space on a bed of keyboards and piano.
    — Ed Masley, AZCentral.com, 26 Sep. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'rat-a-tat.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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