ratatiner
French, verb/ʁa.ta.ti.ne/
ratatiner is spelled R-A-T-A-T-I-N-E-R (9 letters) and appears about once in every 19 million words in written French, the 139,724th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Ratatiner is a French verb meaning “to shrink, shrivel” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Rapetisser”.
What does ratatiner mean in English?
verb
- 1
to shrink, shrivel
- 2
to shrivel (up)
- 3
informalto badly damage, wreck, to destroy
- 4
slangto kill
- 5
slangto soundly defeat; to cream
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Rapetisser. 2. Endommager gravement. 3. Tomber lourdement. 4. Tuer.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of ratatiner
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- ratatinant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- ratatiné participle past
- ratatine first-person indicative present
- ratatines indicative present second-person
- ratatinons first-person indicative plural
- ratatinez indicative plural present
- ratatinent indicative plural present
- ratatinais first-person imperfect indicative
- ratatinait imperfect indicative singular
- ratatinions first-person imperfect indicative
- ratatiniez imperfect indicative plural
- ratatinaient imperfect indicative plural
- ratatinai first-person historic indicative
- ratatinas historic indicative past
- ratatina historic indicative past
- ratatinâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce ratatiner?
- /ʁa.ta.ti.ne/
- \ʁa.ta.ti.ne\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is ratatiner in French?
ratatiner appears about once in every 19 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).