rat
n.— «My face was quite round and my ears stuck out—and the beehive just accentuated that. I was, however, persuaded to wear it a few times for photoshoots and recall they used something called a “rat” to wrap the hair around. This was a piece of wire-wool the length of a hand and it kept everything in place.» —“Ooh beehive!” by Diana Appleyard, Stephanie Clarkson Daily Mail (United Kingdom) Oct. 4, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Enthusiastic book recommendations! Martha’s savoring the biography of Alexander von Humboldt, the 19th-century explorer, polymath, and naturalist who revolutionized our understanding of nature and predicted the effects of human activity on...
We use the term Milky Way for that glowing arc across the sky. But how people picture it varies from culture to culture. In Sweden, that starry band goes by a name that means “Winter Street,” and in Hawaii, a term for the Milky Way...