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Rattle   /rˈætəl/   Listen
noun
Rattle  n.  
1.
A rapid succession of sharp, clattering sounds; as, the rattle of a drum.
2.
Noisy, rapid talk. "All this ado about the golden age is but an empty rattle and frivolous conceit."
3.
An instrument with which a rattling sound is made; especially, a child's toy that rattles when shaken. "The rattles of Isis and the cymbals of Brasilea nearly enough resemble each other." "Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw."
4.
A noisy, senseless talker; a jabberer. "It may seem strange that a man who wrote with so much perspicuity, vivacity, and grace, should have been, whenever he took a part in conversation, an empty, noisy, blundering rattle."
5.
A scolding; a sharp rebuke. (Obs.)
6.
(Zool.) Any organ of an animal having a structure adapted to produce a rattling sound. Note: The rattle of a rattlesnake is composed of the hardened terminal scales, loosened in succession, but not cast off, and so modified in form as to make a series of loose, hollow joints.
7.
The noise in the throat produced by the air in passing through mucus which the lungs are unable to expel; chiefly observable at the approach of death, when it is called the death rattle. See Rale.
To spring a rattle, to cause it to sound.
Yellow rattle (Bot.), a yellow-flowered herb (Rhinanthus Crista-galli), the ripe seeds of which rattle in the inflated calyx.


verb
Rattle  v. t.  
1.
To cause to make a rattling or clattering sound; as, to rattle a chain.
2.
To assail, annoy, or stun with a rattling noise. "Sound but another (drum), and another shall As loud as thine rattle the welkin's ear."
3.
Hence, to disconcert; to confuse; as, to rattle one's judgment; to rattle a player in a game. (Colloq.)
4.
To scold; to rail at.
To rattle off.
(a)
To tell glibly or noisily; as, to rattle off a story.
(b)
To rail at; to scold. "She would sometimes rattle off her servants sharply."


Rattle  v. i.  (past & past part. rattled; pres. part. rattling)  
1.
To make a quick succession of sharp, inharmonious noises, as by the collision of hard and not very sonorous bodies shaken together; to clatter. "And the rude hail in rattling tempest forms." "'T was but the wind, Or the car rattling o'er the stony street."
2.
To drive or ride briskly, so as to make a clattering; as, we rattled along for a couple of miles. (Colloq.)
3.
To make a clatter with the voice; to talk rapidly and idly; to clatter; with on or away; as, she rattled on for an hour. (Colloq.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Rattle" Quotes from Famous Books



... happy evenings by the fire-side. But the rhythm of the car-wheels altered, and from "She loves you, she loves you," the refrain now came brokenly and fiercely, like the reports of muskets fired in hate and fear, and mixed with their roar and rattle I seemed to distinguish words of command in a foreign tongue, and the groans of men wounded and dying. And I saw, rising above great jungles and noisome swamps, a long mountain-range piercing a burning, naked sky; and in a pass in the mountains a group of my own countrymen, ...
— Captain Macklin • Richard Harding Davis
... him, he could hear the rattle and shriek of winch-engines and the far-off muffled roar of the whistle, rumbling its triumph of returning life. Already the great propeller engines themselves had been tested, after their weeks of idleness, languidly stretching and moving like an awakening sleeper, slowly swinging their solemn tons ...
— Never-Fail Blake • Arthur Stringer
... the sound of the rattle of wheels, and, as he doubled an angle of the rock-wall, he came upon a wain drawn by four dun kine, wherein lay a young woman all muffled up against the cold with furs and cloths; beside the yoke-beasts went her man, ...
— The Roots of the Mountains • William Morris
... into hot fury by the Frenchman's uncavalier-like ruse, met his adversary's thrusts with a deadly purpose, which drove De Malfort to reckless lunging and riposting, and the play grew fast and fierce, while the rattle of steel seemed never likely to end. Suddenly, timing his attack to the fraction of a second, Fareham dropped on his left knee, and planting his left hand upon the ground, sent a murderous thrust home under De Malfort's guard, ...
— London Pride - Or When the World Was Younger • M. E. Braddon
... Jack, mutely questioning. "I wonder if—" He gave Surry a hasty, farewell slap on the shoulder and went out into the sunshine and the clamor of voices and laughter, with the creaking of carts threaded through it all. The faint, unmistakable rattle of a wagon driven rapidly, came towards them. While they stood listening, came also a confused jumble of voices emitting sounds which the two guessed were intended for a song. A little later, above the high-pitched rattle of the wagon wheels, they heard ...
— The Gringos • B. M. Bower


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