rattle

rattle
    n 1: a rapid series of short loud sounds (as might be heard with
         a stethoscope in some types of respiratory disorders); "the
         death rattle" [syn: {rattle}, {rattling}, {rale}]
    2: a baby's toy that makes percussive noises when shaken
    3: loosely connected horny sections at the end of a
       rattlesnake's tail
    v 1: make short successive sounds
    2: shake and cause to make a rattling noise
    

Rattle \Rat"tle\ (r[a^]t"t'l), v. t.
   1. To cause to make a rattling or clattering sound; as, to
      rattle a chain.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To assail, annoy, or stun with a rattling noise.
      [1913 Webster]

            Sound but another [drum], and another shall
            As loud as thine rattle the welkin's ear. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Hence, to disconcert; to confuse; as, to rattle one's
      judgment; to rattle a player in a game. [Colloq.]
      [1913 Webster]

   4. To scold; to rail at. --L'Estrange.
      [1913 Webster]

   {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.
          [1913 Webster]
    

Rattle \Rat"tle\, n.
   1. A rapid succession of sharp, clattering sounds; as, the
      rattle of a drum. --Prior.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Noisy, rapid talk.
      [1913 Webster]

            All this ado about the golden age is but an empty
            rattle and frivolous conceit.         --Hakewill.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. An instrument with which a rattling sound is made;
      especially, a child's toy that rattles when shaken.
      [1913 Webster]

            The rattles of Isis and the cymbals of Brasilea
            nearly enough resemble each other.    --Sir W.
                                                  Raleigh.
      [1913 Webster]

            Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw. --Pope.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. A noisy, senseless talker; a jabberer.
      [1913 Webster]

            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.
      [1913 Webster]

   5. A scolding; a sharp rebuke. [Obs.] --Heylin.
      [1913 Webster]

   6. (Zool.) Any organ of an animal having a structure adapted
      to produce a rattling sound.
      [1913 Webster]

   Note: 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.
         [1913 Webster]

   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}.
      [1913 Webster]

   {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.
      [1913 Webster]
    

Rattle \Rat"tle\ (r[a^]t"t'l), v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Rattled}
   (-t'ld); p. pr. & vb. n. {Rattling} (-tl[i^]ng).] [Akin to D.
   ratelen, G. rasseln, AS. hr[ae]tele a rattle, in
   hr[ae]telwyrt 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.
      [1913 Webster]

            And the rude hail in rattling tempest forms.
                                                  --Addison.
      [1913 Webster]

            'T was but the wind,
            Or the car rattling o'er the stony street. --Byron.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To drive or ride briskly, so as to make a clattering; as,
      we rattled along for a couple of miles. [Colloq.]
      [1913 Webster]

   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.]
      [1913 Webster]
    

333 Moby Thesaurus words for "rattle":
      Bedlam let loose, Klaxon, abash, abate, addle, addle the wits,
      agitate, agreeable rattle, assault, attenuate, babble, babbler,
      ball up, battery, bear, bear upon, becloud, bedazzle, bedlam,
      befuddle, bells, bewilder, bicker, big talker, blab, blabber,
      blabberer, blast, blather, blatherer, blether, blunt, bobbery,
      boiler factory, boiler room, bones, boost, bother, bounce, brattle,
      brawl, brouhaha, buck, bug, bull, bull-roarer, bulldoze, bullshit,
      bump, bump against, bunt, butt, butt against, cackle, call off,
      castanets, catcall, celesta, charivari, chat, chatter, chatterbox,
      chatterer, cherry bomb, chime, chimes, chirm, clack, clacker,
      clacket, clamor, clangor, clap, clapper, clappers, clatter,
      clatter about, clitter, clitterclatter, cloud, clunter, commotion,
      confound, confuse, cracker, crackle, crackling, cram, cramp,
      crash cymbal, cricket, cripple, crowd, cymbals, damp, dampen, daze,
      dazzle, deaden, debilitate, devitalize, dig, din, discombobulate,
      discomfit, discompose, disconcert, discord, discountenance,
      disorganize, disorient, disquiet, distract, disturb, dither,
      donnybrook, drive, drivel, drool, drunken brawl, dull, dustup,
      elbow, electrify, embarrass, enervate, enfeeble, entangle,
      enumerate, eviscerate, exhaust, extenuate, faze, finger cymbals,
      firecracker, flap, flummox, flurry, fluster, flutter, fog, force,
      fracas, free-for-all, fuddle, fuss, gab, gabber, gabble, gabbler,
      gamelan, gas, gasbag, gibber, gibble-gabble, gibble-gabbler,
      glockenspiel, go on, goad, gong, gossip, great talker, gruel, gush,
      handbells, haver, hell broke loose, horn, hot-air artist, howl,
      hubbub, hue and cry, hullabaloo, hurtle, hustle, idiophone,
      idle chatterer, jab, jabber, jabberer, jam, jangle, jar, jaw, jay,
      jiggle, jog, joggle, jolt, jostle, jounce, lay low, list,
      loud noise, lyra, magpie, maraca, marimba, maze, metallophone,
      mist, mitigate, mix up, moider, moulin a paroles, muddle, natter,
      noise, noise and shouting, noisemaker, nudge, orchestral bells,
      outcry, palaver, pandemonium, patter, patterer, percussion,
      percussion instrument, percussions, percussive, perplex, perturb,
      piffle, pile drive, poke, pother, pour forth, prate, prater,
      prattle, prattler, press, prod, punch, push, put off, put out,
      racket, raise hell, ram, ram down, ramble, ramble on,
      rattle around, rattle on, rattlebones, rattlebox, rattletybang,
      rattling, recite, reduce, reel off, rhubarb, roar, rock, row,
      ruckle, ruckus, ruction, ruffle, rumble, rumpus, run, run against,
      run on, run through, sap, shake, shake up, shatter, shindy,
      shivaree, shock, shoulder, shove, siren, sizzler, snapper,
      snappers, soften up, speed, spout, spout off, stagger,
      steam whistle, stir, stress, talk away, talk nonsense, talk on,
      tam-tam, tamp, throw into confusion, thrust, thunder, thunderclap,
      ticktack, tintamarre, tintinnabula, tittle-tattle, tonitruone,
      triangle, trouble, tubular bells, tumult, twaddle, twattle,
      unbrace, undermine, unman, unnerve, unsettle, unstrengthen,
      unstring, uproar, upset, utter, vapor, vibes, vibraphone, vibrate,
      waffle, weaken, whistle, whizgig, whizzer, windbag, windjammer,
      word-slinger, xylophone, yak, yakkety-yak