Dictionary

rattler en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈɹætlə(ɹ)/
• /ˈɹætələ(ɹ)/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree English rattle Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusnom. Latin -āriusbor. Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz Proto-West Germanic *-ārī Old English -ere Middle English -ere English -er English rattler From rattle + -er.

Meanings

1. Anything that rattles.
2. (US, informal) A rattlesnake.
   • You watch your step walking out there on the mesa, because in warmer season, the rattlers are up and about, and it's their turf. 1989 February 5, Kay Whitlock, “Letter from Colorado”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 29, page 11:
3. A freight train or, (chiefly UK), a passenger train.
   • I'll lay you odds that this old rattler don't get into Shanghai on time. 1932, Jules Furthman, Shanghai Express, spoken by Sam Salt (Eugene Pallette):
4. (colloquial) Any decrepit or noisy vehicle, such as a cart, carriage or train.
5. (colloquial, dated) A loud, inconsiderate talker.
6. (colloquial, dated) A stunning blow.
   • […] laid handsomely out with such a rattler on the nose as nobody could have expected from a casky little man of five-feet-nothing. 1897, Alexander Montgomery, Five-Skull Island And Other Tales of the Malay Archipelago:
7. (colloquial, dated) An impudent lie; a whopper.

Forms

Deriveds

rattler-jumper · sabre-rattler · bead-rattler · Murrumbidgee river rattler · diamondback rattler · rattler-jumping · red rattler · jump the rattler