prat

plural prats · alternative pratt

1. ScotlandA cunning or mischievous trick; a prank, a joke.First known use 10th c.

comparative more prat · superlative most prat · alternative pratt

1. obsoleteCunning, astute.First known use 13th–17th c.

plural prats · alternative pratt

1. slangA buttock, or the buttocks; a person's bottom.First known use 16th c.

   Pratt, a Buttock.

   1608, Thomas Dekker, The Canters Dictionarie in The Belman of London (second part Lanthorne and Candlelight)

   3 more examples

   No gentry mort hath prats like thine, / No cove e'er wap'd with such a one.

   1707, John Shirley, “The Maunder's Praise of his Strowling Mort”, in The Triumph of Wit

   Burt shook his head, wanting to tell Mac what a pain in the prat he was when he went on a take, but instead, repeated his instruction, keeping his voice at a whisper, moving his fingertips along the table […]

   1952, Leonard Bishop, Down All Your Streets, page 218

   Mungo didn't like their attitude. Nor did he like exposing his prat in mixed company.

   1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 5

2. CommonwealthIrelandUKslangA fool, contemptible person.First known use 20th c.

   Those protestors will have achieved nothing good. They are stupid prats.

   2023 June 29, Metro, London, page 10, column 3

3. slangThe female genitals.First known use 17th c.

   "She's a far better piece Than the Viceroy's niece, Who has also more fur on her prat."

   1967 (sourced to 1942), William A. Schwartz, The Limerick: 1700 Examples with Notes, Variants and Examples Vol 1, Greenleaf Classics 1967, p. 124

   2 more examples

   ...they would kidnap a girl and take her back to their camp where they would pull down her knickers, hoping to find hairs on her prat.

   1984 John Murray, ed, Panurge, Vol 1–3, p. 39

   "My prat was sore from the unfamiliar activities of the night before, but my virgin bleeding had ceased, and we rode most of the day in that unworldly haze that comes with lack of sleep."

   2005, Sherrie Seibert Goff, The Arms of Quirinus, iUniverse, page 135