Meanings
plural ratsbanes
- countableuncountableRat poison; white arsenic.
Before him set the grim baron, with a face worthy of the father of such a daughter, and looking daggers and rat's bane.
1835, [Washington Irving], “Abbotsford”, in Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey (The Crayon Miscellany; no. 2), Philadelphia, Pa.: [Henry Charles] Carey, [Isaac] Lea, & Blanchard, →OCLC, pages 40–411 more example
The Gadfly’s venom, fifty times distilled, Is mingled with the vomit of the Leech, In due proportion, and black ratsbane, which That very Rat, who, like the Pontic tyrant, Nurtures himself on poison, dare not touch;—
1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna white powdered poisonous trioxide of arsenic; used in manufacturing glass and as a pesticide (rat poison) and weed killer
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
From rat's + bane. Compare henbane.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
ratsbane. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ratsbane
“ratsbane.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ratsbane. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ratsbane,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ratsbane.
Source: ratsbane on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.