rattle

verb

1. (ergative, transitive)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.”

   “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. (figuratively, informal, transitive)To scare, startle, unsettle, or unnerve.

   ““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?””

   “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.”

   “The German authorities are still trying to determine what damage their mole may have done. But the discovery of a double agent has rattled German political circles.”

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. (obsolete, transitive)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.”

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

   “This came to the Bishop's Ear, who presently sent for the Curate, Rattled him to some Tune, with Menaces to the Highest Degree”

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 one's voice; to talk rapidly and idly; often with on or away.

   “She rattled on for an hour.”

8. (UK, slang)To experience withdrawal from drugs.

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)Object that rattles.
2. (countable, uncountable)Object that rattles.

   “Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a straw.”

3. (countable, uncountable)Object that rattles.

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

4. (countable, uncountable)Object that rattles.

   “[T]he footpath to Hendon went across hay and corn fields and in summer the sound of rattles used by boys hired to "fray" the birds from the crops was familiar.”

5. (countable, uncountable)Object that rattles.

   “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.”

   “The majority of snakes were killed on the spot, as a snaker only had to produce the rattles to collect the bounty.”

6. (countable, onomatopoeic, uncountable)Rattling sound.

   “I wish they would fix the rattle under my dashboard.”

   “The rattle of a drum.”

   “For a few minutes, the sharp cracking of guns ahead warned them to haste, but finally the reports dwindled to an occasional shot, presently ceasing altogether. Nor was this less ominous than the rattle of musketry, for it suggested but a single solution to the little band of rescuers—that the illy garrisoned village had already succumbed to the onslaught of a superior force.”

7. (archaic, countable, uncountable)Rattling sound.

   “All this adoe about the golden age is but an empty rattle and frivolous conceipt.”

8. (archaic, uncountable)Rattling sound.

   ““And pray where, Lady Honoria,” cried Mrs. Delvile, “do you contrive to pick up all this rattle?””

9. (countable, uncountable)Rattling sound.

   “‘Sir James is a young Man of an amiable disposition, and excellent character;—a little too much of the Rattle perhaps, but a year or two will rectify that […].’”

   “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.”

10. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Rattling sound.
11. (countable, uncountable)Rattling sound.
12. (alt-of, alternative, historical)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).