Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use rattling in a sentence

38 example sentences · adjective, noun

Rattling means lively, quick (speech, pace). Example: “I wish the dashboard in my car would quit rattling.”

Examples of rattling by meaning

adjectiveGood, fine.

  • a rattling good lunch
  • 'I'd like nothing better this minute,' said Mr Browne stoutly, 'than a rattling fine walk in the country or a fast drive with a good spanking goer between the shafts.'1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “The Dead”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 257

More sentences with rattling

  • I wish the dashboard in my car would quit rattling.From the entry rattle
  • YS just crashed that corn and I swear man's eardrum started rattling (Mad ting).2021, “Gang Bus (Original)”, performed by S13(CGE). From the entry pattern
  • And, while he handles the plump rattling grain, Declares it pingled, only fit for mice!2020, John Goodridge, Nineteenth-Century English Labouring-Class Poets. From the entry pingle
  • Malkom must have scented her then, because he stiffened, rattling his chains.2010, Kresley Cole, chapter 24, in Demon from the Dark (The Immortals After Dark; 10), New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, →ISBN. From the entry takesie-backsies
  • As Wright opened the door he made hard work of it, rattling the key in the lock.2005, Gene Kerrigan, Hard Cases – True Stories of Irish Crime. From the entry make hard work of
  • “Something for everybody!” Gerald Fedden said, striding into the kitchen with a rattling brown-paper carrier bag.2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 2, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN. From the entry carrier bag
  • Mum snaps open a can of lager, takes a guzzly swig and lets out a rattling burp.2002, Chrissie Glazebrook, chapter 9, in The Madolescents, London: Arrow, page 86. From the entry guzzly
  • His knees clacked together like stalks of ribbon cane rattling in a high wind.1994, Joe R. Lansdale, “Bubba Ho-Tep”, in The Best of Joe R. Lansdale, San Francisco: Tachyon Publications, published 2010, pages 51–52. From the entry ribbon cane
  • The man gave a rattling hawk in his throat and spat directly between Bond and Leiter.1954, Ian Fleming, “Death of a Pelican”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 139. From the entry hawk
  • “Did you think you could get away with it?” she demanded, rattling the cuffs like a dungeon mistress.2017, Cleo Coyle, chapter 23, in Dead Cold Brew (Coffeehouse Mysteries; 16), New York, N.Y.: Berkley Prime Crime, →ISBN, page 83. From the entry dungeon mistress
  • Scotland had the territory and the momentum, forcing England into almost twice as many tackles and rattling them repeatedly at set-pieces.2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport. From the entry territory
  • Rattling around inside its skull was a bone ball.2009, Charles Foster, “Who’s Right? Evidence and the Lack of It”, in The Selfless Gene: Living with God and Darwin, London: Hodder &…. From the entry gorgosaurus
  • I needed alcohol to stop my nerves rattling.2008, Tony Black, Paying for It, London: Preface, →ISBN, page 214. From the entry skite
  • Consider a collection of objects – perfectly elastic pool balls, perhaps – rattling around inside a closed, isolated container.2004, Stephen Webb, “Symmetry”, in Out of this World: Colliding Universes, Branes, Strings, and Other Wild Ideas of Modern Physics, New…. From the entry translate
  • I’m afraid the earth is disappearing behind them.” He took off his headset and heard distant bullets rattling in the predawn.1994, Ben Brooks, “And the Cat, Argyle”, in Bruce Smith, Catherine Gammon, editors, Cape Discovery: The Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center…. From the entry franticity
  • All the noise is air flowing through it: there’s none of the rattling or other mechanical sounds you get from cheaper air cons.2024 August 12, Kulwinder Rai, Abigail Buchanan, Simon Lewis, “The 11 best portable air conditioners to cool your house”, in Chris Evans…. From the entry air con
  • The rain was pelting and rattling upon the leathern top of the carriage, and the wheels swashed as they rolled through puddle and mud.2014, M. M. Owen, A Sting In The Tale - An Anthology of Twist Endings. From the entry swash
  • Terrorists seem to fire the Uzi with total disregard for ammunition consumption, rattling through dozens of rounds without the need to reload.2011, Chris McNab, The Uzi Submachine Gun, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 67. From the entry uzi
  • On Saturday the band members laid down a series of playful indie-rock grooves: plinky keyboards and spidery guitar lines, rattling drums and nudging bass.2007 June 18, Kelefa Sanneh, “Preppie Afro-Pop and Other Odd Blends”, in New York Times. From the entry plinky
  • Especially when all the little breakfasteries, the delis and donuteries and muffineries, are rattling up their shutters and putting on the coffee to brew.2004, Henry Shukman, “Road Movie”, in Darien Dogs, Vintage, published 2005, →ISBN, page 148. From the entry donutery
  • They were dancing to the tune of incessant yowlings, the thudding of wooden drums and the monotonous dry rattling of pebbles in turtle-shell rattles.1996, Kenneth Roberts, Rabble in Arms. From the entry yowling
  • I remember clearly the drive down Pennsylvania Avenue to the depot, the iron-tired wheels of our carriage rattling and bumping over the cobblestones.1925, Jesse R[oot] Grant, In the Days of My Father General Grant, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, page 37. From the entry tired
  • So we got nowhere in particular ; but learnt a good deal, having ' powtered up and down a bit and had a rattling day.'1907, The Alpine Journal - Volume 23, page 585. From the entry powter
  • The trio took their places side by side, and began to play some rattling dance-music, and beat time with their big boots.1906, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “The Californian’s Tale”, in The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories, New York…. From the entry breakdown
  • There were no tipped-over bottles or clouds of ecto-mist swirling near the baseboards, nothing other than that weird, ominous moaning and the rattling of the walls that accompanied it.2020 March 31, Samantha Irby, Wow, No Thank You.: The #1 New York Times Bestseller, Faber & Faber, →ISBN. From the entry ecto-mist
  • I am going to feed you to the children,” rasped Burt, his laugh rattling around his throat, prising Dad’s fingers one by one off his apron.2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN. From the entry rasp
  • To the rescue was a handful of Invercargill's constabulary and they acquired even an appearance by Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt rattling a chatter ring in the council chambers.2011 June 13, Sam McKnight, “Southern film-makers shoot to success in 48-hour production”, in Southland Times. From the entry chatter ring
  • Like an empress, I feel great content surrounded by the familiar sounds of laughter, bickering, rattling plates, clicking chopsticks, smacking lips, and noisy sipping of the longevity brew.2008, Mingmei Yip, Peach Blossom Pavilion. From the entry content
  • Suddenly, a rhythmic shaking and rattling overtook the room, shoogling and shimmying the structure in time to the acid jazz stomp riverboat boogie shuffle beat of the song.2005, Neil Keir Henderson, An English Summer in Scotland and Other Unlikely Events, page 225. From the entry shoogle
  • So here I was, fondling all sorts of fine mats, when a hoss of a woman screeched into her cell phone, rattling the lamps in the light fixture aisle.2004 December 8, Susan Reinhardt, “Facing my fear: Doing Disney with the crowds”, in Asbury Park Press, page 18. From the entry hoss
  • On such analogous reasoning it is not difficult to see why the aetites stone, with another rattling inside it, should have been thought helpful to a pregnant woman.1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 184. From the entry aetites
  • It was assumed, consequently, that their characteristic of suddenly losing their immobility and rattling a rapid tattoo against the main stem was some strange form of triffidian amatory exuberance.1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 45. From the entry triffidian
  • He would croon over it the name of the man while gently rattling his ‘devil bones,’ thus calling up the evil spirit that follows these particular charmed bones.1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 177. From the entry doctor
  • Far into the night the kylies kept sharply rattling in waves of metallic sound, the voices carrying far in bursts of song that ceased with startling abruptness.1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 253. From the entry kylie
  • I'm sure primitive man was drumming away and rattling things to make musically pleasing sounds, but then and now the human voice was, and is, number one with a bullet.2009, Bruce Swedien, Make Mine Music. From the entry number one with a bullet
  • "How you've forgotten," she cried, and ran up to him, rattling her keys and looking grave with housewifery, and I was left alone with the dusk and the familiar things.1918 March, Rebecca West [pseudonym; Cicily Isabel Fairfield], chapter II, in The Return of the Soldier, 1st American edition, New York…. From the entry housewifery

Meaning of rattling

  1. adjective Lively, quick (speech, pace).
  2. adjective Good, fine.
  3. noun Rattle (a sound made by objects shaking or vibrating against one another).

Full definition of rattling

Questions about rattling in a sentence

How do you use rattling in a sentence?
Rattling is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “I wish the dashboard in my car would quit rattling.”
What is a short sentence with rattling?
“a rattling good lunch”
What does rattling mean?
Rattling means lively, quick (speech, pace).

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rattling (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use rattling in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/rattling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.