brat

/bræt/ (bre, ipa) · [brˈæt] /bræt/ (ame, ipa) · [brˈæt] /ˈbrat How to pronounce brat (audio)/ (ame, mw)

brat — noun

1. an annoying child, or an older person acting the same way, who behaves selfishly

1.名詞B2
釋義

an annoying child, or an older person acting the same way, who behaves selfishly and expects everyone else to give in.

例句

Elena called her little brother a brat after he hid the TV remote.

call someone a brat

The waiter sighed when the brat threw noodles onto the floor.

同義詞
  • spoiled child

    focuses on being given too much and becoming hard to manage

  • troublemaker

    broader and less tied to childish selfishness

  • crybaby

    more specific to complaining or tears

反義詞

文法句型

be a brat

call someone a brat

act like a brat

用法筆記

This sense is openly critical and informal. It most often describes a child, but speakers also use it for adults when the behaviour feels childish and demanding.

常見錯誤

❌My cousin is a brat, so she serves in the army.
✅My cousin is an Army brat.
💡Sense 1 means a badly behaved person, while sense 2 refers to a military child.

2. a son or daughter from a military family, especially one who grew up moving with

2.名詞C1
釋義

a son or daughter from a military family, especially one who grew up moving with a parent's service job.

例句

As a brat, Mira changed schools whenever her mother's base assignment changed.

military-family use: as a brat

The camp helps military brats meet other children who move every few years.

plural pattern: military brats

同義詞
  • military child

    a plain descriptive alternative without the set phrase's informal tone

  • service kid

    another informal label, especially in everyday speech

文法句型

an Army brat

a Navy brat

grow up a military brat

用法筆記

This sense usually appears in compounds such as Army brat or Navy brat. It points to a family's military life and frequent moves, not to bad behaviour.

常見錯誤

❌Her father is a brat in the Air Force.
✅Her father is in the Air Force, and she is an Air Force brat.
💡This sense refers to the child, not the person serving.

3. a sausage, usually cooked on a grill, that people mean when they shorten the wor

3.名詞B2
釋義

a sausage, usually cooked on a grill, that people mean when they shorten the word bratwurst.

例句

At the baseball game, Selim ate a brat with onions and yellow mustard.

eat a brat with mustard

We bought fresh brats from the butcher before the neighborhood cookout.

plural food use: brats

同義詞
  • bratwurst

    the full word; brat is the shorter informal form

  • sausage

    the broader everyday category rather than this specific kind

文法句型

eat a brat

grill brats

a brat on a roll

用法筆記

In this sense, brat is a casual shortening of bratwurst in food talk. The meaning is completely unrelated to the rude-child sense in noun sense 1.

常見錯誤

❌I ordered a bratwurst child at the fair.
✅I ordered a brat at the fair.
💡Here brat names a sausage, not a person.