Word.ws English Dictionary

bead-rattler

bead-rattler noun: a Roman Catholic.

Noun

bead-rattler (plural bead-rattlers)

  1. (derogatory) A Roman Catholic.
    • And can't you smell that bacon? To think that a poor bead-rattler like me can't have any, on a Friday, no matter how early he's up, and that you might have all you wanted, if you'd only take the trouble to come and get it, you lazy heretics!1951, Frances Parkinson Keyes, Joy Street, page 236
    • A young bead-rattler it was, made the same mistake as yersel.2012, Jeff Torrington, Swing Hammer Swing!

Forms of bead-rattler

pluralbead-rattlers

Origin of bead-rattler

A reference to rosary beads.

Questions about bead-rattler

What does bead-rattler mean?
Bead-rattler means a Roman Catholic.
What part of speech is bead-rattler?
Bead-rattler is a noun.
What is the plural of bead-rattler?
The plural of bead-rattler is bead-rattlers.

Words near bead-rattler in the dictionary

  1. bead seats
  2. bead tracer
  3. bead tracers
  4. bead tree
  5. bead trees
  6. bead-rattler
  7. bead-rattlers
  8. bead-tree
  9. bead-trees
  10. Beadala
  11. beadbeater

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bead-rattler (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “bead-rattler.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bead-rattler. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.