Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A rickety, worn-out vehicle.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A shaky, rattling object; especially, a rattling, rickety vehicle; in the plural, objects clattering or rattling against each other.
Wiktionary
- adj. Mechanically unreliable or in disrepair.
- n. A mechanical device, particularly an automobile, that is worn out, run down, or mechanically unreliable as indicated by noises it makes in operation.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. colloq. Any machine or vehicle that does not run smoothly.
Etymologies
- From rattle + trap. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“It must reward them, or their children would not be able to go to school, nor would so many of them be able to drive by in rattletrap, second-hand buggies or in stout light wagons.”
“I just wonder what kind of rattletrap duct-taped mayhem is disguised under a smooth oxymoron like "collective intelligence.”
“I packed up my belongings and steered onto I-5 in my rattletrap '91 Honda Accord to return to L.A. to celebrate.”
“Theroux is firsthand witness to it all, traveling as the locals doby stifling train, rattletrap bus, illicit taxi, and mud-caked footencountering adventures only he could have: from the literary (sparring with the incisive Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk) to the dissolute (surviving a week-long bender on the Trans-Siberian Railroad).”
Ghost Train to the Eastern Star by Paul Theroux: Book summary
“You think Spielberg would only have a rattletrap third-rate spaceship like the Millennium Falcon to ensure his survival?”
The Washington Post: Does George Lucas think the world will end in 2012?
“There was an old rattletrap ruin where the bungalow now stands.”
“After a few minutes Kassim came downstairs, walked across the sandy driveway, and drove off in his rattletrap Toyota van.”
“Rollie grinned from inside a rattletrap Chevy pickup.”
“Nathan burst onto the world of Middle East diplomacy in 1966 with a dramatic solo flight to Egypt in a rattletrap single-engine plane, more than a decade before Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty.”
“I stood back and offered an appreciative glance but, between you and me, the car was real rattletrap.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘rattletrap’.
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It's a trap
trap, gin, snare, deadfall, trapezium, trapezoid, trappist, venus flytrap, foothold trap, trapping pit, glue trap, trap set and 98 more...
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Steampunk
Words used quite often in steampunk
ansible, airship, chymical, valve, clockwork, dirigible, thaumaturgy, copper, bronze, difference engine, gear, rivets and 516 more...
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Your Mission: Find theTraps
List of words that contain the letter string *trap*. Some are obvious and apparent, such as trapezoid, while others are a bit less apparent, such as contrapuntist, ultraphysical, and intraperitoneal.
trapezoid, contrapuntist, wentletrap, allotetraploid, bootstrap, caltrap, unstrap, Trappist, ultraphysical, trapline, Trapt, autotetraploidy and 195 more...
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Automobiles
ambulance, automobile, beach buggy, cab, car, cement mixer, cherry, coach, compact, convertible, coupe, deuce and 66 more...
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Various Traps
fixed-gear weirs, purse seiners, mid-water trawlers, lobster pot, mousetrap, 419 scam, buffalo jump, venus flytrap, sticky paper, deadfall, pitfall, catch 22 and 39 more...
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Words For Novel (Part 3)
fibers, gypsy, polymer, schism, syphilitic garden..., holocaust, scrutinant, contemplate, aftermath, consequence, deadlock, impasse and 153 more...
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thekatespanos's list
pomposity, gaggle, scintilla, lemming, bilk, vanquish, conflate, plenary, verisimilitude, perspicacious, rattletrap, obdurate and 325 more...
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oddball
wackadoodlery.
( personal list )
related (from me):
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/onomatopoeias--1
bric-a-brac, succotash, humbucker, skedaddle, scallywag, sassafras, gadzooks, humdinger, hoity-toity, wishy-washy, namby-pamby, ding dong and 441 more...
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persnickety parlance
behoove, ebullient, insouciant, insipient, froth, quandary, quixotic, tendril, maktub, furrow, furl, anastrophe and 1076 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, R
retinol, rectory, rhubarb, rancor, recension, rood, redivivus, roborate, redound, ripsnorting, ragtag, recruit and 250 more...
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unpack your adjectives
and adverbs
walrusine, slipshod, bemused, inscrutable, bombastic, cattywampus, copacetic, famished, crackpot, flailsome, lugubrious, scalesome and 102 more...
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Fun to say, think or write
fascinating, amazing, rattletrap, Helmholtz, Woozle, Yonkers, Humboldt, Hubert, Rufus, Pemberton, penguin, harumph and 6 more...
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rduke's Words
misguggle, ken, sere, etiolated, gelid, digladiate, popinjay, bathykolpian, conglaciation, hyperborean, callipygian, vagile and 1253 more...
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simple & useful4
solemnize, decipherable, imaginarily, loftily, brusquely, explication, ogles, regalia, tenaciousness, wrong-headedness, iniquitous, solitudinarian and 84 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for rattletrap.
reesetee Nice one! In the same family as claptrap, I say. Feb 16, 2007
trivet an onomatopoeic delight! best when uttered with scathing derision Feb 15, 2007