GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

last match results

Found 3 definitions

1.       
   Rattle , v. i. [imp. & p. p. Rattled ; p. pr. & vb. n. Rattling .] [Akin to D. ratelen, G. rasseln, AS. hrætele a rattle, in hrætelwyrt rattlewort; cf. Gr. κραδαίνειν to swing, wave. Cf. Rail a bird.]
   To make a quick succession of sharp, inharmonious noises, as by the collision of hard and not very sonorous bodies shaken together; to clatter.
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   And the rude hail in rattling tempest forms.
   Addison.
   
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   'T was but the wind,
   Or the car rattling o'er the stony street.
   Byron.
   
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   To drive or ride briskly, so as to make a clattering; as, we rattled along for a couple of miles. [Colloq.]
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   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.]
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2.       
   Rattle , v. t.
    To cause to make a rattling or clattering sound; as, to rattle a chain.
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   To assail, annoy, or stun with a rattling noise.
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   Sound but another [drum], and another shall
   As loud as thine rattle the welkin's ear.
   Shak.
   
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   Hence, to disconcert; to confuse; as, to rattle one's judgment; to rattle a player in a game. [Colloq.]
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   To scold; to rail at.
   L'Estrange.
   
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   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.” Arbuthnot.
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3.       
   Rattle, n.
   A rapid succession of sharp, clattering sounds; as, the rattle of a drum.
   Prior.
   
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   Noisy, rapid talk.
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   All this ado about the golden age is but an empty rattle and frivolous conceit.
   Hakewill.
   
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   An instrument with which a rattling sound is made; especially, a child's toy that rattles when shaken.
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   The rattles of Isis and the cymbals of Brasilea nearly enough resemble each other.
   Sir W. Raleigh.
   
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   Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw.
   Pope.
   
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   A noisy, senseless talker; a jabberer.
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   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.
   Macaulay.
   
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   A scolding; a sharp rebuke. [Obs.]
   Heylin.
   
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   (Zool.) Any organ of an animal having a structure adapted to produce a rattling sound.
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   ☞ 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.
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   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 Râle.
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   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.
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