rattle

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To make or emit a quick succession of short percussive sounds.
2. v. To move with such sounds: A train rattled along the track.
3. v. To talk rapidly and at length, usually without much thought: rattled on about this and that.
4. v. To cause to make a quick succession of short percussive sounds: rattled the dishes in the kitchen.
5. v. To utter or perform rapidly or effortlessly: rattled off a list of complaints.
6. v. Informal To fluster; unnerve: The accident rattled me. See Synonyms at embarrass.
7. n. A rapid succession of short percussive sounds.
8. n. A device, such as a baby's toy, that produces short percussive sounds.
9. n. A rattling sound in the throat caused by obstructed breathing, especially near the time of death.
10. n. The series of horny structures at the end of a rattlesnake's tail.
11. n. Loud or rapid talk; chatter.
12. v. To secure ratlines to (shrouds).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To give out a rapid succession of short, sharp, jarring or clattering sounds; clatter, as by continuous concussions.
2. To move or be carried along with a continuous rapid clatter; go or proceed or bear one's self noisily: often used with reference to speed rather than to the accompanying noise.
3. To speak with noisy and rapid utterance; talk rapidly or in a chattering manner: as, to rattle on about trifles.
4. To cause to make a rattling sound or a rapid succession of hard, sharp, or jarring sounds.
5. To utter in sharp, rapid tones; deliver in a smart, rapid manner: as, to rattle off a string of names.
6. To act upon or affect by rattling sounds; startle or stir up by any noisy means.
7. To scold, chide, or rail at noisily; berate clamorously.
8. To shake up, unsettle, or disturb by censure, annoyance, or irritation; bring into an agitated or confused condition.
9. n. A rapid succession of short, sharp, clattering sounds, as of intermitting collision or concussion.
10. n. A rattling clamor of words; sharp, rapid talk of any kind; hence, sharp scolding or railing.
11. n. An instrument or toy contrived to make a rattling sound. The watchman's rattle, formerly used for giving an alarm, and the child's toy resembling it, consist of a vibrating tongue slipping over the teeth of a rotating ratchet-wheel, and producing much noise when rapidly twirled by the handle. Other toy rattles for Children, and those used by some primitive races for various purposes, commonly consist of a box or casing, or even a hollow gourd or shell, with or without a handle, containing loose pebbles or other hard objects.
12. n. One who talks rapidly and without moderation or consideration; a noisy, impertinent talker; a jabberer.
13. n. The crepitaculum of the true rattlesnake, consisting of a series of horny epidermic cells of an undulated pyramidal shape, articulated one within the other at the extremity of the tail. See rattlesnake.
14. n. An annual herb, Rhinanthus Crista-galli, of meadows and pastures in Europe and northern Asia. It attaches itself by its fibrous roots to the roots of living grasses, etc., thus doing much damage. Its calyx in fruit is orbicular, inflated but flattened, containing a capsule of similar form with a few large flat, generally winged seeds. This is the common or yellow rattle, also called locally penny-grass, penny-rattle, rattlebays, rattlebox, and ratttepenny.
15. n. One of the Old World louseworts, Pedicularis palustris, the red rattle.
16. n. The death-rattle.
17. Nautical, to furnish with ratlines.

Wiktionary

1. n. onomatopoeia a sound made by loose objects shaking or vibrating against one another
2. n. a baby's toy designed to make sound when shaken, usually containing loose grains or pellets in a hollow container
3. v. transitive (ergative) To create a sound by shaking.
4. v. transitive To scare, startle, unsettle, or unnerve.
5. v. transitive To cause something to make a rattling sound by hitting it.
6. v. intransitive To make a rattling noise; to make noise by or from shaking.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To make a quick succession of sharp, inharmonious noises, as by the collision of hard and not very sonorous bodies shaken together; to clatter.
2. v. colloq. To drive or ride briskly, so as to make a clattering.
3. v. colloq. To make a clatter with the voice; to talk rapidly and idly; to clatter; -- with on or away.
4. v. To cause to make a rattling or clattering sound.
5. v. To assail, annoy, or stun with a rattling noise.
6. v. colloq. Hence, to disconcert; to confuse
7. v. To scold; to rail at.
8. n. A rapid succession of sharp, clattering sounds.
9. n. Noisy, rapid talk.
10. n. An instrument with which a rattling sound is made; especially, a child's toy that rattles when shaken.
11. n. A noisy, senseless talker; a jabberer.
12. n. obsolete A scolding; a sharp rebuke.
13. n. (Zoöl.) Any organ of an animal having a structure adapted to produce a rattling sound.
14. n. 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.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a rapid series of short loud sounds (as might be heard with a stethoscope in some types of respiratory disorders)
2. v. make short successive sounds
3. n. a baby's toy that makes percussive noises when shaken
4. n. loosely connected horny sections at the end of a rattlesnake's tail
5. v. shake and cause to make a rattling noise