Meaning & use
rattle
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Meanings
verbtransitive or intransitive
To make quick, repeated, knocking sounds, or to cause something to do so by shaking it.
Grammar: Can have no object (the windows rattled) or an object (he rattled the door handle).
Patterns
- rattle something
- rattle against something
The windows rattled every time a heavy truck passed.
He rattled the coins in his pocket while he waited.
Pans rattled on the shelf as the train went by.
verbtransitiveinformal
To make someone feel nervous, shaken or unable to think clearly.
Grammar: Takes a person as the object and is often used in the passive: she was rattled.
Patterns
- rattle someone
- be rattled by something
The sudden question rattled the young candidate.
Don't let the noise from the crowd rattle you.
He looked rattled after the car almost hit him.
verbphrasal verbinformal
To say or do something quickly and without effort, usually with off or through.
Grammar: Usually used with off or through: rattle off a list.
Patterns
- rattle off something
- rattle through something
She rattled off the names of all fifty states in under a minute.
The speaker rattled through his slides and left no time for questions.
nouncountable
A toy or instrument that makes a clattering sound when shaken, such as a baby's toy.
Grammar: Usually refers to a toy or noisemaker: a baby rattle.
Patterns
- a baby rattle
The baby giggled and shook her rattle.
Fans waved wooden rattles in the stadium.
A rattle on a rattlesnake's tail warns predators away.
Word forms
| third person singular | rattles |
|---|---|
| past tense | rattled |
| past participle | rattled |
| -ing form | rattling |
| plural | rattles |
Common combinations
- rattle the windows
- The wind rattled the windows all night.
- rattle someone's cage
- He liked to rattle his sister's cage just to see her reaction.
- rattle off a list
- She rattled off a list of reasons.
- easily rattled
- Good pilots are not easily rattled.
- rattle around
- We rattle around in this big old house now the kids have left.
- a baby rattle
- They gave the newborn a silver baby rattle.
Synonyms and how they differ
- clatter
- Clatter describes a louder, clumsier noise of hard objects hitting each other, often falling.
- unnerve
- Unnerve is more formal and suggests deeper loss of courage, while rattle often means a brief disturbance.
- fluster
- Fluster implies someone becomes confused and flushed, whereas rattle suggests being shaken or unsettled.
- shake
- Shake is the general word for moving back and forth, but it does not always produce the sound that rattle does.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: rattle or ruffle?
rattle vs ruffle
Ruffle means to disturb the smoothness of hair, feathers or a mood, while rattle means to make noise or unsettle someone.
Practice
The coach's calm voice kept the team from feeling ___ by the loud crowd.
Choose one answer.
Rattled is the past participle used as an adjective meaning shaken or nervous, which fits being affected by a crowd. Clattered refers to noise, not nerves.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “rattle”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.