rattle

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈɹæ.t(ə)l/
• Rhymes: -ætəl

Verb from Middle English, either from Old English (not attested) or Middle Dutch ratelen, ultimately imitative. The noun (c. 1500) is from the verb.

rattle (plural rattles)

a baby with a rattle (2)

1. (onomatopoeia) a sound made by loose objects shaking or vibrating against one another.

   I wish they would fix the rattle under my dashboard.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Matthew Prior

     The rattle of a drum.

2. A baby’s toy designed to make sound when shaken, usually containing loose grains or pellets in a hollow container.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Alexander Pope

     Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw.

3. A device that makes a rattling sound such as put on an animal so its location can be heard.
4. (music) A musical instrument that makes a rattling sound.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Sir Walter Raleigh

     The rattles of Isis and the cymbals of Brasilea nearly enough resemble each other.

5. (dated) Noisy, rapid talk.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Hakewill

     All this ado about the golden age is but an empty rattle and frivolous conceit.

6. (dated) A noisy, senseless talker; a jabberer.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Macaulay

     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.

7. A scolding; a sharp rebuke.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Heylin to this entry?)

8. (zoology) Any organ of an animal having a structure adapted to produce a rattling sound.

   The rattle of the rattlesnake is composed of the hardened terminal scales, loosened in succession, but not cast off, and modified in form so as to make a series of loose, hollow joints.

9. The noise in the throat produced by the air in passing through mucus which the lungs are unable to expel; death rattle.
10. Any plant of the genus Rhinanthus, whose seeds produce a rattling noise in the wind.

• rattlesnake
• spring a rattle
• yellow rattle (plant)

rattle (third-person singular simple present rattles, present participle rattling, simple past and past participle rattled)

1. (transitive, ergative) To create a rattling sound by shaking or striking.

   to rattle a chain

   Rattle the can of cat treats if you need to find Fluffy.

   • 2011 February 5, Michael Kevin Darling, “Tottenham 2 - 1 Bolton”, in BBC‎:

     It was a deflating end to the drama for the hosts and they appeared ruffled, with Bolton going close to a leveller when Johan Elmander rattled the bar with a header from Matt Taylor’s cross.

2. (transitive, informal) To scare, startle, unsettle, or unnerve.
   • (Can we date this quote?) P. G. Wodehouse

     “Tut!” said old Bittlesham. “Tut is right”, I agreed. Then the rumminess of the thing struck me. “But if you haven’t dropped a parcel over the race,” I said, “why are you looking so rattled?”

   • 2014, Richard Rae, "Manchester United humbled by MK Dons after Will Grigg hits double", The Guardian, 26 August 2014:

     That United were rattled, mentally as well as at times physically – legitimately so – was beyond question. Nick Powell clipped a crisp drive a foot over the bar, but otherwise Milton Keynes had the best of the remainder of the first half.

3. (intransitive) To make a rattling noise; to make noise by or from shaking.

   I wish the dashboard in my car would quit rattling.

4. (transitive, obsolete) To assail, annoy, or stun with a ratting noise.
   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     Sound but another [drum], and another shall / As loud as thine rattle the welkin’s ear.

5. (transitive, obsolete) To scold; to rail at.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of L'Estrange to this entry?)

6. To drive or ride briskly, so as to make a clattering.

   We rattled along for a couple of miles.

7. To make a clatter with a voice; to talk rapidly and idly; with on or away.

   She rattled on for an hour.

• clapper
• clatter
• jingle
• rumble

From Arabic رَطْل‎ (raṭl), variant of classical رِطْل‎ (riṭl), ultimately from Ancient Greek λίτρα (lítra).

rattle (plural rattles)

1. (historical units of measure) Alternative form of rottol: a former Middle Eastern and North African unit of dry weight usually equal to 1–5 lb (0.5–2.5 kg).

• Tatler, latter