RAT'TLE, v.i.

1. A rapid succession of sharp clattering sounds; as, the rattle of a drum. – Prior.
2. A rapid succession of words sharply uttered; loud rapid talk; clamorous chiding.
3. An instrument with which a clattering sound is made. The rattles of Isis and the cymbals of Brogan nearly more resemble each other. – Ralegh. The rhymes and rattles of the man or boy. – Pope.
4. A plant of the genus Pedicularis, lousewort. – Fam. of Plants. Yellow rattle, a plant of the genus Rhinanthus. – Ibm.

1. To make a quick sharp noise rapidly repeated, by the collision of bodies not very sonorous. When bodies are sonorous, it is called jingling. We say, the wheels rattle over the pavement. And the rude hail in rattling tempest forms. – Addison. He fagoted his notions as they fell, / And if they rhym'd and rattl'd, all was well. – Dryden.
2. To speak eagerly and noisily; to utter words in a clattering manner. Thus turbulent in rattling tone she spoke. – Dryden. He rattles it out against popery. – Swift.

1. To cause to make a rattling sound or a rapid succession of sharp sounds; as, to rattle a chain. – Dryden.
2. To stun with noise; to drive with sharp sounds rapidly repeated. Sound but another, and another shall, / As loud as thine, rattle the welkin's ear. – Shak.
3. To scold; to rail at clamorously; as, to rattle on servants sharply. – Arbuthnot.

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 cause to make a rattling or clattering sound; as, to rattle a chain.
3. A rapid succession of sharp, clattering sounds; as, the rattle of a drum.
   
   
   Prior.
4. To drive or ride briskly, so as to make a clattering; as, we rattled along for a couple of miles.
   
   
   [Colloq.]
5. 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.

6. Noisy, rapid talk.
   
   

   All this ado about the golden age is but an empty rattle and frivolous conceit. Hakewill.

7. 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.]
8. Hence, to disconcert; to confuse; as, to rattle one's judgment; to rattle a player in a game.
   
   
   [Colloq.]
9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. A scolding; a sharp rebuke.
    
    
    [Obs.] Heylin.
13. Any organ of an animal having a structure adapted to produce a rattling sound.
    
    

    * 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.

14. 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.