ratting

verb

1. (form-of, gerund, participle, present)present participle and gerund of rat

   “Don't go ratting to the police about what happened.”

noun

1. (archaic, uncountable, usually)The blood sport of setting a dog upon rats confined in a pit to see how many he will kill in a given time.

   “Henry Mayhew, the nineteenth-century chronicler of London's underworld, described the frenzied activity of one ratting contest. A terrier — the best of ratting dogs — was placed into a pit with 50 rats.”

   “Bear and bull baiting, dog fights, cockfighting, ratting, and other blood sports were attacked as un-Christian […]”

   “The RSPCA were well aware that ratting was legally ambiguous, and when they received a report of a conviction for ratting in Hull in 1868 they doubted the legality of it.”

   “Such men usually satisfied their needs for leisure in the patronage of saloons or in such “blood” sports as cockfights or rattings.”

   “This was the pit for dog fights, cockfights and rat killing. […] At a time when ratting was largely frowned upon by respectable people in Britain, it gained considerable support in France […]”

2. (uncountable, usually)A vocation involving the pest control of rats, typically using a working terrier.
3. (uncountable, usually)Desertion of one's principles.
4. (uncountable, usually)Working as a scab, against trade union policies.