Magic: the Gathering jargon.
Rat-flinging is a way of killing a creature (not necessarily Plague Rats or other such nuisance creatures). It involves two spell effects:
- Something to give the target creature the Flying ability and
- A spell or special ability of creature to deal damage to a creature with Flying.
Cards to fling the rat include Jump and Flight (for example) and some cards to take it out include Earthbind and Grapeshot Catapult (there was also one green card in recent editions that did 4 damage to a creature with Flying, I forgot the name).
*Swoosh!* ... *Zip!* ... *Squeak*
My personal variant of this is Giant Growth + Reprisal - note that this method doesn't need to involve actual flying, just something to get the target to the firing range of another spell or effect!
The term was first (I believe) recorded by Theslin Wanders-Through-Bramble in the famous MtG jargon collection in 1994.