rattler

See also: Rattler

English

Etymology

From rattle +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɹætələ(ɹ)/, /ˈɹætlə(ɹ)/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ætlə(ɹ)

Noun

rattler (plural rattlers)

  1. Anything that rattles.
  2. (chiefly US, informal) A rattlesnake.
    • 1989 February 5, Kay Whitlock, “Letter from Colorado”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 29, page 11:
      You watch your step walking out there on the mesa, because in warmer season, the rattlers are up and about, and it's their turf.
  3. A freight train or, (chiefly British), a passenger train.
  4. (colloquial) Any decrepit or noisy vehicle, such as a cart, carriage or train.
  5. (colloquial, dated) A loud, inconsiderate talker.
  6. (colloquial, dated) A stunning blow.
    • 1897, Alexander Montgomery, Five-Skull Island And Other Tales of the Malay Archipelago:
      […] laid handsomely out with such a rattler on the nose as nobody could have expected from a casky little man of five-feet-nothing.
  7. (colloquial, dated) An impudent lie; a whopper.

Derived terms

Translations

References

  • John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

Anagrams

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