Rat"tle (-t'l), v. i. [imp. & p.
p. Rattled (-t'ld); p. pr. & vb. n.
Rattling (-tl&ibreve;ng).] [Akin to D. ratelen, G.
rasseln, AS. hrætele a rattle, in
hrætelwyrt rattlewort; cf. Gr. kradai`nein 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.
2. To drive or ride briskly, so as to make a
clattering; as, we rattled along for a couple of miles.
[Colloq.]
3. 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.]
Rat"tle (răt"t'l), v. t.
1. To cause to make a rattling or clattering
sound; as, to rattle a chain.
2. 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.
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.
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 rattling sound
is made; especially, a child's toy that rattles 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. (Zoöl.) Any organ of an animal
having a structure adapted to produce a rattling sound.
&fist; 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.
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 Râle.
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.
