Word.ws English Dictionary

saber-rattling

saber-rattling is the chiefly US spelling of sabre-rattling.

saber-rattling is the present participle and gerund of saber-rattle.

Meaning of sabre-rattling

Noun

sabre-rattling (countable and uncountable, plural sabre-rattlings)

  1. (idiomatic) A flamboyant display of military power as an implied threat that it might be used.
  2. (figuratively, idiomatic) Any threat, such as one company threatening another with a lawsuit.

See all 3 meanings of sabre-rattling

Forms of saber-rattling

Noun
pluralsaber-rattlings
Adjective
comparativemore saber-rattling
superlativemost saber-rattling

Questions about saber-rattling

What is saber-rattling the chiefly US spelling of?
Saber-rattling is the chiefly US spelling of sabre-rattling.

Words near saber-rattling in the dictionary

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

Source and license

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