Meaning of rat run | Babel Free

Definitions

A small, usually minor road used by a significant amount of traffic as a short cut or to avoid congestion on more major routes.

idiomatic

Equivalents

Examples

“This week Wykeham Street in Scarborough was named as the worst rat run in Britain. […] A ‘rat run’ sounds like some sort of charity jog by rodents keen to improve their image, but it is of course a side street that suffers from being heavily used by through-traffic as a short-cut.”

CEFR level