Meanings
plural rat-trap cheeses
- UScountableinformaluncountableInexpensive unexceptional cheese.
Near-synonym: government cheese (sometimes humorously synonymous)
1 more example
Having spent twice as much money as I had intended during the first month in New York, I tried to live even more frugally than I had earlier in the year. I still ate rye bread and rat-trap cheese in my room, but less of it[…]
1951, Erskine Caldwell, Call it Experience: The Years of Learning how to Write, page 112Synonyms: rat cheese, government cheese
- UScountableinformaluncountableAmerican cheese portrayed as such.
Synonyms: rat cheese, government cheese, rat cheese
Synonyms & antonyms
nounInexpensive unexceptional cheese.
nounAmerican cheese portrayed as such.
Origin
So called because it might be used in baiting a trap.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
rat-trap cheese. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rat-trap%20cheese
“rat-trap cheese.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rat-trap%20cheese. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “rat-trap cheese,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rat-trap%20cheese.
Source: rat-trap cheese on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.