Word.ws English Dictionary

saber-rattle

saber-rattle is the alternative form of sabre-rattle.

Meaning of sabre-rattle

Verb

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

  1. To threaten a big battle or war.
    • Then you speak of "the President's spread-eagle patriotism," his delight in "barnyard language," his "readiness to sabre-rattle at the ripple of a flag,"1969, Lawrence Edmund Spivak, Meet the Press: America's Press Conference of the Air

Forms of saber-rattle

third-person singular presentsaber-rattles
present participlesaber-rattling
past participlesaber-rattled
pastsaber-rattled

Questions about saber-rattle

What is saber-rattle the alternative form of?
Saber-rattle is the alternative form of sabre-rattle.

Words near saber-rattle in the dictionary

  1. saber rattlings
  2. saber saw
  3. saber saws
  4. saber shin
  5. saber shins
  6. saber-rattle
  7. saber-rattled
  8. saber-rattles
  9. saber-rattling
  10. saber-rattlings
  11. saber-toothed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: saber-rattle (page history and authors); sabre-rattle (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: “saber-rattle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/saber-rattle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.