Word.ws English Dictionary

sabre rattling

sabre rattling is the alternative form of sabre-rattling.

sabre rattling is the present participle and gerund of sabre 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 sabre rattling

pluralsabre rattlings

Questions about sabre rattling

What is sabre rattling the alternative form of?
Sabre rattling is the alternative form of sabre-rattling.

Words near sabre rattling in the dictionary

  1. sabre leg
  2. sabre legs
  3. sabre rattle
  4. sabre rattled
  5. sabre rattles
  6. sabre rattling
  7. sabre rattlings
  8. sabre saw
  9. sabre saws
  10. sabre-rattle
  11. sabre-rattled

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sabre 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.

Last updated:

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