pack rat

noun

: wood rat

especially : a bushy-tailed rodent (Neotoma cinerea) of western North America that has well-developed cheek pouches and that hoards food and miscellaneous objects

: a person who collects or hoards especially unneeded items

Examples of pack rat in a Sentence

I'm a terrible pack rat. I never throw anything away.

Recent Examples on the Web Hoff has a unique combination of long experience with electronic design and long-standing pack rat habits. —

IEEE Spectrum, 8 Oct. 2022 One of my favorite episodes features the pack rats Patty and Debra. —

Morgan Meis, The New Yorker, 28 Feb. 2023 Julio Betancourt of the U.S. Geological Survey has studied pack rat middens in the U.S. West and South America. —

From Usa Today Network and Wire Reports, USA TODAY, 10 Sep. 2021 Fortunately for history, Stuart was something of a pack rat. —

Thomas Doherty, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 Feb. 2023 Agents were told that Trump was a pack rat who had been personally overseeing his collection of White House records since even before leaving Washington and had been reluctant to return anything. —

Anchorage Daily News, 24 Aug. 2022 Trump, a pack rat who for decades showed off knickknacks in his overstuffed Trump Tower office — including a giant shoe that once belonged to basketball player Shaquille O’Neal — treated the nation’s secrets as similar trinkets to brandish. —

Maggie Haberman, BostonGlobe.com, 18 Aug. 2022 As in Darger’s case, Maier, who died in 2009, was a pack rat and a recluse who never sought to publish her work in her lifetime. —

Jason Meisner, Chicago Tribune, 31 July 2022 Scientists studying pack rat middens at the City of Rocks National Reserve have determined that the area’s iconic pinyon pine trees first arrived about 2,800 years ago and became prevalent about 700 years ago. —

From Usa Today Network and Wire Reports, USA TODAY, 10 Sep. 2021 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pack rat.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.