rug rat

noun

Definition of rug ratnext
slang
as in preschooler

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of rug rat In a bid to increase his nation’s number of rug rats, Władysław Grochowski, owner of one of Poland’s biggest hotel chains, has pledged to throw a party for every couple who conceives while staying at his properties. — Maureen O'Hare, CNN Money, 4 Oct. 2025 Your standard maternal protagonist is not dropping a trail of pacifiers behind her, swilling goblets of red wine the minute her rug rats are in bed, and secretly vaping in the linen closet? — Chloe Schama, Vogue, 14 May 2018
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rug rat
  1. preschooler
  2. minor
  3. adolescent
  4. kindergartner
  5. schoolboy
  6. schoolchild
  7. infant
  8. newborn
Noun
  • Those foundations can begin with something as simple as learning to put on a jacket, a common milestone for a preschooler.
    — Emily Woodruff, Los Angeles Times, 22 Oct. 2026
  • In 1985, Lee’s firstborn, then a preschooler, died in a traffic accident.
    — E. Tammy Kim, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
Definition of preschooler
Noun
  • His father, Vu Thanh Nguyen of Santa Ana, has been charged with one felony count of child endangerment and one misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor for buying his son the powerful electric motorcycle.
    — Julie Sharp, CBS News, 20 Oct. 2026
  • To date, the gang-fighting force has apprehended 26 people, including a minor who has been transferred to a special center; the others were handed over to Haitian authorities, per the protocol the force works under, within 48 hours of their arrest.
    — Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald, 19 Oct. 2026
Definition of minor
Noun
  • Ariel Gutiérrez’s intimate coming-of-age drama examines how sudden loss can force an adolescent to confront fear, responsibility and the possibility of rebuilding a life after trauma.
    — Anna Marie de la Fuente, Variety, 9 Oct. 2026
  • Getty An island that had spent decades pairing glamour with license was perhaps the wrong place to entrust an adolescent to unusually permissive relatives.
    — Paul Jebara, Condé Nast Traveler, 25 Aug. 2026
Definition of adolescent
Noun
  • Noah, a kindergartener at the time, also had to ride the bus with high school students, until an advocate intervened on the family’s behalf.
    — Cayla Bamberger, New York Daily News, 18 Sep. 2026
  • Palladino was a kindergartner in Brooklyn when classmates suddenly began being called over the school PA system to go home.
    — Jasmine Baehr, FOXNews.com, 10 Sep. 2026
Definition of kindergartner
Noun
  • And why is Owen Wilson grinning like an awkward schoolboy at Zeus’s naked daughters?
    — Andrea Sachs, Washington Post, 18 Oct. 2026
  • One picture shows a schoolboy Rogers at the Hawks’ annual presentation evening, wearing a tie in their red and blue colours.
    — Daniel Taylor, New York Times, 5 Sep. 2026
Definition of schoolboy
Noun
  • Learning to read and write cursive was once a rite of passage for practically every American schoolchild.
    — Washington Post, Washington Post, 20 Aug. 2026
  • Would that every schoolchild could stand on the grassy knoll for a quiet minute, pondering the imponderables.
    — Dan Piepenbring, Harpers Magazine, 26 May 2026
Definition of schoolchild
Noun
  • Two infants who were infected with measles have died in Pennsylvania this year, both too young to receive the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine.
    — Deidre McPhillips, CNN Money, 21 Oct. 2026
  • Even today human infants are helpless without at least one connection.
    — Jeanna Bryner, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2026
Definition of infant
Noun
  • Enroll your baby before the clock runs out Ensuring your newborn has health coverage is one of the first paperwork responsibilities that parents face in the whirlwind of bringing a baby home.
    — Stephanie O'Neill, NPR, 21 Oct. 2026
  • It's been here since January, giving parents a way to anonymously surrender a newborn.
    — Erin Jones, CBS News, 21 Oct. 2026
Definition of newborn

Browse Nearby Words

ruggedness
rug rat
rug rats
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Cite this Entry

“Rug rat.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rug%20rat. Accessed 28 Oct. 2026.

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