rattle

rat|tle1 [ `rætl ] verb

1. ) intransitive if something rattles, it makes short sharp knocking sounds as it moves or shakes:

The house shook and the doors and windows rattled.

There's something rattling in the bottom of that box.

a ) transitive to knock things together or shake them so that they rattle:

Betty was rattling pans in the kitchen.

He came up the driveway, rattling a bunch of keys.

2. ) transitive INFORMAL to make someone feel nervous or angry:

Just keep your cool and don't let him rattle you.

3. ) intransitive if a motor vehicle or a train rattles somewhere, it moves there quickly and noisily:

Don came rattling down the track in his battered old truck.

rattle someone's cage HUMOROUS

to make someone angry or upset

,rattle `off phrasal verb transitive

to say something quickly, especially something you have learned by memory:

She rattles off a list of movies her father directed.

,rattle `on phrasal verb intransitive INFORMAL

to talk quickly and for a long time

,rattle `through phrasal verb transitive BRITISH INFORMAL

rattle through something to do or say something quickly because you want to finish it as soon as you can

rattle

rat|tle 2 [ `rætl ] noun count

1. ) a baby's toy that rattles when it is shaken

2. ) the sound that something makes when it rattles:

the clank and rattle of the trains