"like rats in a sack" meaning in English

See like rats in a sack in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} like rats in a sack, {{en-PP}} like rats in a sack
  1. (simile) Engaged in vicious combat or dispute.
    Sense id: en-like_rats_in_a_sack-en-prep_phrase-tOuyaVt6 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English similes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries
{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "like rats in a sack",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "like rats in a sack",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English similes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Engaged in vicious combat or dispute."
      ],
      "id": "en-like_rats_in_a_sack-en-prep_phrase-tOuyaVt6",
      "links": [
        [
          "vicious",
          "vicious"
        ],
        [
          "combat",
          "combat"
        ],
        [
          "dispute",
          "dispute"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "simile",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(simile) Engaged in vicious combat or dispute."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "like rats in a sack"
}
{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "like rats in a sack",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "like rats in a sack",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English prepositional phrases",
        "English similes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Engaged in vicious combat or dispute."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "vicious",
          "vicious"
        ],
        [
          "combat",
          "combat"
        ],
        [
          "dispute",
          "dispute"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "simile",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(simile) Engaged in vicious combat or dispute."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "like rats in a sack"
}

Download raw JSONL data for like rats in a sack meaning in English (0.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-08-07 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-08-02 using wiktextract (8b3c49c and 3c020d2). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.