rattles

Verb

rattle (third-person singular simple present rattles, present participle rattling, simple past and past participle rattled)

1. (ergative, transitive) To create a rattling sound by shaking or striking.
   • to rattle a chain
2. (figuratively, informal, transitive) To scare, startle, unsettle, or unnerve.
   • “Tut!” said old Bittlesham. “Tut is right”, I agreed. Then the rumminess of the thing struck me. “But if you haven’t dropped a parcel over the race,” I said, “why are you looking so rattled?”1923 May 17, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “(please specify the page)”, in The Inimitable Jeeves, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC
3. (intransitive) To make a rattling noise; to make noise by or from shaking.
   • I wish the dashboard in my car would quit rattling.
4. (obsolete, transitive) 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.c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
5. (obsolete, transitive) To scold; to rail at.
   • This came to the Bishop's Ear, who presently sent for the Curate, Rattled him to some Tune, with Menaces to the Highest Degree1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC
6. To drive or ride briskly, so as to make a clattering.
   • We rattled along for a couple of miles.

See all 19 meanings of rattle