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rattle |
4 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Rattle \Rat"tle\, v. t. 1. To cause to make a ratting or clattering sound; as to rattle a chain. 2. To assail, annoy, or stun with a ratting noise. Sound but another [drum], and another shall As loud as thine rattle the welkin's ear. --Shak. 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 --L'Estrange. {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. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Rattle \Rat"tle\, n. 1. A rapid succession of sharp, clattering sounds; as the rattle of a drum. --Prior. 2. Noisy, rapid talk. All this ado about the golden age is but an empty rattle and frivolous conceit. --Hakewill. 3. An instrument with which a ratting sound is made especially, a child's toy that rattle when shaken. The rattles of Isis and the cymbals of Brasilea nearly enough resemble each other --Sir W. Raleigh. Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw. --Pope. 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. --Macaulay. 5. A scolding; a sharp rebuke. [Obs.] --Heylin. 6. (Zo["o]l.) Any organ of an animal having a structure adapted to produce a ratting sound. Note: The rattle of the 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 {R[^a]le}. {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. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Rattle \Rat"tle\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Rattled}; p. pr & vb n. {Rattling}.] [Akin to D. ratelen G. rasseln AS hr[ae]tele a rattle, in hr[ae]telwyrt rattlewort; cf Gr ? to swing, wave. Cf {Rail} a bird.] 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. --Addison. 'T was but the wind, Or the car rattling o'er the stony street. --Byron. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: rattle n : a rapid series of short loud sounds [syn: {rattling}] v 1: make short successive sounds 2: shake and cause to make a rattling noise
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