Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[tisogai]

Below are the excerpts from Matilda by Roald Dahl. Please help me understand these...

1. Matilda's father was a , small ratty-looking man with a thin moustache.

What can "ratty-looking" mean here??

2. "Now this clock thing runs off one of front wheels. So I use an electric drill on it, and when the drill turns, it turns the clock backwards-very fast! I can take fifty thousand miles off the car in a few minutes!...

Does that mean the meter is connected to one of the front wheels??

3. "Dead man's dinner! Dead man's dinner!" said the bird, this time with a voice like a ghost.

The bird is a parrot which Matilda's friend has and talks. Does "Dead man's dinner" significantly mean something here?? Has it something to do with Matilda's family usually eating their dinner in front TV in the living room??

Thanks so much.

[pugachevV]

1. Ratty-looking means that he looked like a rat.
Ratty can also mean down-at-heel, scruffy, shabby, disreputable.
2. In some vehicles with analog odometers, the odometer is connected to one of the wheels, or the transmission by a cable. If the cable is disconnected at the wheel or transmission and then connected to an electric drill, it is possible to change the odometer reading of the vehicle by running the drill at high speed.
This is a swindle that used to be prevalent in the used car industry. Probably the current day electronic odometers are a little more difficult to change.
3. Dead man's dinner has no set meaning, as far as I know. It may have some relevance in the story you are reading.

[CP]