Lexic.us

Definition of Rattle

1. Verb. Make short successive sounds. "The streets rattle with cars "

2. Noun. A rapid series of short loud sounds (as might be heard with a stethoscope in some types of respiratory disorders). ; "The death rattle"

3. Verb. Shake and cause to make a rattling noise.

4. Noun. A baby's toy that makes percussive noises when shaken.

5. Noun. Loosely connected horny sections at the end of a rattlesnake's tail.

Definition of Rattle

1. v. i. To make a quick succession of sharp, inharmonious noises, as by the collision of hard and not very sonorous bodies shaken together; to clatter.

2. v. t. To cause to make a rattling or clattering sound; as, to rattle a chain.

3. n. A rapid succession of sharp, clattering sounds; as, the rattle of a drum.

Definition of Rattle

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

2. Noun. a baby's toy designed to make sound when shaken, usually containing loose grains or pellets in a hollow container ¹

3. Verb. (transitive) (ergative) To create a sound by shaking. ¹

4. Verb. (transitive) To scare, startle, unsettle, or unnerve. ¹

5. Verb. (transitive) To cause something to make a rattling sound by hitting it. ¹

6. Verb. (intransitive) To make a rattling noise; to make noise by or from shaking. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Rattle

1. to make a quick succession of short, sharp sounds [v -TLED, -TLING, -TLES]

Medical Definition of Rattle

1. 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." (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. 6. Any organ of an animal having a structure adapted to produce a ratting sound. 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 Rale. To spring a rattle, to cause it to sound. Yellow rattle, a yellow-flowered herb (Rhinanthus Crista-galli), the ripe seeds of which rattle in the inflated calyx. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Rattle

ratter ratteries ratters rattery ratticide ratticides rattier rattiest rattily rattiness

rattinet rattinets ratting rattings rattish rattle (current term) rattle-top rattle down rattle off rattle on

rattle snake rattle someone's cage rattle the bones rattle through rattle trap rattle weed rattleback rattlebacks rattlebox rattleboxes

Literary usage of Rattle

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. American Anthropologist by American Anthropological Association, American Ethnological Society (1892)
"The rattle is diminutive, being only about nine inches long, exclusive of the ... These feathers, as also some of another species at the top of the rattle, ..."

2. Primitive Music: An Inquiry Into the Origin and Development of Music, Songs by Richard Wallaschek (1893)
"Hottentot dancers fasten a number of small ones to their ankles and so very distinctly mark time.1 The Congo people2 also know the rattle; they have it in ..."

3. Primitive Music: An Inquiry Into the Origin and Development of Music, Songs by Richard Wallaschek (1893)
"Hottentot dancers fasten a number of small ones to their ankles and so very distinctly mark time.1 The Congo people2 also know the rattle ; they have it in ..."

4. Primitive Music: An Inquiry Into the Origin and Development of Music, Songs by Richard Wallaschek (1893)
"Hottentot dancers fasten a number of small ones to their ankles and so very distinctly mark time.1 The Congo people2 also know the rattle ; they have it in ..."

5. Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present: A Dictionary, Historical and by John Stephen Farmer, William Ernest Henley (1902)
"All this ado about the Rolden age, is but an empty rattle and frivolous conceit. ... I did lay the law open to them, and rattle the master-attendants out of ..."

6. The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General by Thomas Spencer Baynes (1888)
"The rattle is a complicated and highly specialized organ, developed from the ... Tie bone by which the root of the rattle is supported consists of the last ..."

Other Resources: