See Also: iron deficiency(medicine)
Deficiency, iron(health)
deficiency, iron(medicine)
Iron deficiency anemia(health)
iron deficiency anaemia(medicine)
anaemia, iron deficiency(medicine)
Anemia, iron deficiency(health)
iron-deficiency anemia(encyclopedia)
iron(1)(dictionary)
Iron Age(encyclopedia)

ratty (iou) and Deficiency, iron (health)


ratty (iou)



ratty adjective. ['rati] M19.
[from RAT noun1 + -Y1.]
a. Infested with rats. M19.
b. Characteristic of a rat or rats. L19.
a. Shabby; wretched; nasty. colloq. M19.
R. Jaffe The boy was in ratty jeans. New Yorker He slept..on her ratty old mattress.
b. Irritable; annoyed, angry. colloq. E20.
Nursing She was ratty and miserable. E. O'Brien Admitted to having been..ratty with her on account of her being so late.
c. Mad; eccentric. Austral. & NZ colloq. L19.
rattily adverb L20.
rattiness noun L20.

Deficiency, iron (health)


The most common known form of nutritional disorder in the world, iron deficiency results in anemia because iron is necessary to make hemoglobin, key molecule in red blood cells responsible for the transport of oxygen. In iron deficiency anemia, the red cells appear abnormal and are unusually small (microcytic) and pale (hypochromic). The pallor of the red cells reflects their low hemoglobin content.