Noun

(en noun)

A pawl, click or detent for holding or propelling a ratchet wheel, or ratch, etc.

A mechanism composed of a ratchet wheel, or ratch and pawl.

A ratchet wrench.

(analogous ) A procedure or regulation that goes in one direction, usually up.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-12-14

, author=Simon Jenkins, authorlink=Simon Jenkins , title=We mustn't overreact to North Korea boys' toys , volume=188, issue=2, page=23 , date=2012-12-21 , magazine= citation , passage=The threat of terrorism to the British lies in the overreaction to it of British governments. Each one in turn clicks up the ratchet of surveillance, intrusion and security. Each one diminishes liberty.}}

Noun

(-)

The excrement of a rat.

* 1978 , , Somebody?s Darling , 2002, page 228,

“Do you think they have ratshit' in them?” Wynkyn asked. “Swan says most hamburgers have ' ratshit in them.”

* 1984 , , Just Us , page 106,

‘Terry stop it! R—?s on, remember. If we get busted we?re ratshit . We?ll never see each other again.’

* 1987 , , unnumbered page,

He slammed the choke in again. ‘No, don?t you stall, you ratshit plane! ’

* 1992 , , The Multiplex Man , 2011, page 46,

“Aw, who cares? It?s all going to hell anyway. You have your turn, eat, get drunk, screw; and fifty years from now none of it?ll matter a ratshit .”

* 1995 , Anne Cameron. Wedding Cakes, Rats and Rodeo Queens , page 61,

So they pulled the furniture away from the wall and found a pile of little dried ratshit pellets behind the dresser.

(Australia, vulgar, slang) Nonsense, bullshit.

* 1987 , , After Long Absence'', ''Dislocations , page 205,

He also said that most of the kids at school were full of ratshit and that only one or two sheilas made the place any better than buggery.

* 1995 , Irene Moores, Arthur Murray, Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Watch Committee, Voices of Aboriginal Australia: Past, Present, Future , page 49,

Do you see, Mr Bryant, why your old dream of getting to where you could really'' do something at last is going to be proved to be so much ratshit'''? Do you see why self-determination that isn?t really real ''is'' so much ' ratshit ?

* 2006 , William J. Lines, Patriots: Defending Australia?s Natural Heritage , page 257,

Kerin, one of the most pro-development Ministers, told his colleagues: ‘The EIS is ratshit and the guidelines are laughable’.