Noun
(idiomatic) A student or employee who spends a great deal of time working in a laboratory.
(idiomatic) A person or group used as the subject of an experiment or test, especially unwillingly or unwittingly.
lab-rat (plural lab-rats)
Alternative form of lab rat
lab-rat
I did several interesting jobs, working in restaurants, I worked at a lab rat farm, feeding and watering all these rats. Then I got a full-time job as a technical writer for a large scientific research laboratory. Kevin J. Anderson
Grooming oneself with all the crazed compulsion of an under-exercised lab rat in order to hook a rich man and obtain a lush lifestyle makes a certain (albeit seedy) sense. Julie Burchill