As urban dictionary says (a dictionary for slang words you won’t find in a proper dictionary), It comes from “A ghetto-dialect mispronunciation of the English term 'wretched'.” Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright. It’s used to refer to someone, often a girl, who looks bad, sometimes obese, very poor, and scraggly looking in general. Once a ratcheteer has identified and brought his ratchet back from the club for an 'afterparty' he seeks out four specific environments for mating: 1. Just as fair warning, this word can be a racial stereotype, as if you use it all over place without care, you’re likely to insult someone and provoke them, whether from the blatant insult that inherently comes with calling someone ratchet, or the fact that you used it in an inappropriate situation. According to the Urban Dictionary, this term is used to refer to a female. “This is so ratchet” specifically means the situation is crappy, probably poorly planned, and is all around bad, or rough. I quote: A diva, mostly from urban cities and ghettos, that has reasons to believe.

Ratchet urban dictionary image