rattle 
Her chain she rattles, and her whip she shakes. 
Dryden. 
Rattle his bones over the stones ! 
He 's only a pauper whom nobody owns ! 
T. Nod, The Pauper's Drive. 
2. To utter in sharp, rapid tones ; deliver in a 
smart, rapid manner: as, to rattle off a string 
of names. 
He rattles it out against Popery and arbitrary power. 
Xu-ift, Against Abolishing Christianity. 
The rolls were rattled off ; the short, crisp commands 
went forth. The Century, XXXVII. 466. 
3. To act upon or affect by rattling sounds ; 
startle or stir up by any noisy means. 
Sound but another, and another shall 
As loud as thine rattle the welkin's ear. 
Shak., K. John, v. 2. 172. 
These places [woodlands] are generally strongholds for 
foxes, and should be regularly rattled throughout the sea- 
son. Eneyc. Brit., XII. 895. 
4. To scold, chide, or rail at noisily; berate 
clamorously. 
If my time were not more precious 
Than thus to lose it, I would rattle thee, 
It may be beat thee. 
lien u. and Fl., Honest Man's Fortune, v. 3. 
I to Mrs. Ann, and, Mrs. Jem being gone out of the 
chamber, she and I had a very high bout. I rattled her 
up, she being in bed; but, she becoming more cool, we 
parted pretty good friends. Pepys, Diary, Feb. 6, 1660. 
5. To shake up, unsettle, or disturb by censure, 
annoyance, or irritation; bring into an agi- 
tated or confused condition. [Colloq. or slang.] 
The king hath so rattled my lord-keeper that he is now 
the most pliable man in England. 
CoUington, To Strafford (1633), quoted in Hallam's Const. 
[Hist., II. 89. 
Unpleasant stories came into my head, and I remember 
repeating to myself more than once (candor is better than 
felicity of phrase), " Be careful, now ; don't get rattled I " 
Atlantic Monthly, LXIV. 110. 
rattle 1 (rat'l), . [< ME. ratele, a rattle, < AS. 
*hnetele, in comp. hrxtelwyrt, 'rattlewort,' a 
plant in whose pods the seeds rattle; = MD. 
ratele, T>. ratel = G. rassel, a rattle; from the 
verb: see rattle*, v. Cf. G. ratsche, a rattle, 
clapper; Sw. rassel, clank, clash, clatter, etc.] 
1. A rapid succession of short, sharp, clatter- 
ing sounds, as of intermitting collision or con- 
cussion. 
I'll hold tn Pound my Dream is out ; 
I'd tell it to you but for the Rattle 
Of those confounded Drums. 
Prior, English Ballad on tr. of Boileau's Taking of Namur, 
[sU 10. 
I aren't like a bird-clapper, forced to make a rattle when 
the wind blows on me. George Eliot, Adam Bede, Hi. 
2. A rattling clamor of words; sharp, rapid 
talk of any kind ; hence, sharp scolding or rail- 
ing. 
This rattle in the crystal hall 
Would be enough to deaf them all. 
Cotton (Arber's Eng. Garner, I. 218> 
Receiving such a rattle for his former contempt by the 
Bishop of London that he came out blubbering. 
Heylin, Life of Laud, p. 257. (Danes.) 
I chid the servants and made a rattle. 
Sw\ft, Journal to Stella, Ix. 
3. An instrument or toy contrived to make a 
rattling sound. The watchman's rattle, formerly used 
for giving an alarm, and the child's toy resembling it, con- 
sist of a vibrating tongue slipping over the teeth of a 
rotating ratchet-wheel, and producing much noise when 
rapidly twirled by the handle. Other toy rattles for 
children, and those used by some primitive races for vari- 
ous purposes, commonly consist of a box or casing, or even 
a hollow gourd or shell, with or without a handle, contain- 
ing loose pebbles or other hard objects. 
The rattles of Isis and the cymbals of Brasilea nearly 
enough resemble each other. Raleigh. 
They vse Jiattles of the shell of a certaine fruite, in which 
they put Stones or (i mines, and call them Maraca, of which 
they haue some superstitious conceit. 
Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 837. 
Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law, 
Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw. 
Pope, Essay on Man, ii. 276. 
4. One who talks rapidly and without mod- 
eration or consideration ; a noisy, impertinent 
talker ; a jabberer. 
She had not been brought up to understand the propen- 
sities of a rattle, nor to know to how many idle assertions 
and impudent falsehoods the excess of vanity will lead. 
Jane Austen, Northauger Abbey, ix. 
They call me their agreeable Rattle. 
Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer. 
It may seem strange that a man who wrote with so much 
perspicuity, vivacity, and grace should have been, when- 
ever he took a part in conversation, an empty, noisy, blun- 
dering rattle. Maeaulay, Goldsmith. 
5. The crepitaculum of the true rattlesnake, 
consisting of a series of horny epidermic cells 
of an undulated pyramidal shape, articulated 
one within the other at the extremity of the 
tail. See rattlesnake. Q. (a) An annual herb, 
4974 
HJiinantliiis Crista-t/alli, of meadows and pas- 
tures in Europe and northern Asia, it attaches 
itself by its fibrous roots to the roots of living grasses, 
etc., thus doing much damage. Its calyx in fruit is or- 
bicular, inflated but flattened, containing a capsule of 
similar form with a few large flat, generally winged seeds. 
This is the common or yellow rattle, also called locally 
penny-gram, penny-rattle, ratttebaas, rattlebox, and rattle- 
penny, (b) One of the Old World louseworts, 
Pedieularis palustris, the red rattle The rattles 
(a) Croup. (6) The death-rattle. 
rattle 2 (rat'l), v. t. ; pret. and pp. rattled, ppr. 
rattling. [A back formation from rattling, a 
corruption of ratline but taken as a verbal 
noun in -ing, whence the assumed verb rattle.] 
Naut., to furnish with ratlines TO rattle down, 
to seize or fasten ratlines on (the shrouds of a vessel). 
rattlebags (rat'1-bagz), . See rattle 1 , 6 (a). 
rattle-barrel (rat'l-bar'el), n. la founding, a 
tumbling-box for castings, used to free them 
from sand, and sometimes to remove the cores. 
rattlebox (rat'l-boks),. 1. A toy that makes a 
rattling noise ; 
a rattle. 2. (a) 
Aplant,theyel- 
low rattle. See 
rattle*, 6 (a), 
(b) Any of the 
North Ameri- 
can species 
of Crotalaria; 
chiefly, C. sa- 
gittalis, a low 
herb of sandy 
soil in the east- 
ern half of the 
United States. 
The seeds rat- 
tle in the in- 
flated leathery 
pod. (c) The 
calico - wood, 
snowdrop-, or 
silverbell-tree, 
Halesia tetrap- 
tera: so named 
from its large 
dry fruit, which 
is bony within 
and contains a 
single seed in 
each of its 1 to 
4 cells. See 
Halesia and 
calico-wood. 
A giddy, chatter- 
rattlesnake-grass 
rattleskull (rat'1-skul), . Same as rattli-jmti: 
rattlesnake (rat'1-snak), . [< rattle* + mill;,:] 
A venomous serpent of the family Cntalidte, 
whose tail ends in a rattle or crepitaculum ; a cro- 
taliformorsolenoglyphicserpent,orpit-viper,of 
either of the genera Crotalus anA Crotahpnorus. 
These poisonous reptiles are confined to America, where 
there are many species. Those whose head is covered on 
top with scales like those of the back belong to the genus 
Cmtalue; others, with the top of the head plated, belong 
to Crotalophorus, Caudisona, or Sistrurus. The former 
are the larger species ; both are equally venomous. In pro- 
portion to their size, and both have the pit between the 
eyes and nose characteristic of all the pit-vipers. (See cut 
under pitrriper.) The rattle is an epidermal or cuticular 
Plant, with Flowers and Pods, of Rattlebox 
(Crotalaria sagittatis). 
rattlebrain (rat'1-bran), . 
ing person ; a rattlepate. 
rattle-brained (rat'l-brand), a. Giddy; chat- 
tering; whimsical; rattle-headed. 
rattlebush (rat'l-bush), . The wild indigo, 
Baptisia tinctoria, a bushy herb with inflated 
pods. 
rattlecap (rat'1-kap), n. A giddy, volatile per- 
son ; a madcap: generally said of a girl. [Col- 
loq.] 
rattled (rat'ld), a. 1. Confused; flurried. [Col- 
loq. or slang.] 2. Affected by eating the loco 
or rattleweed ; locoed. [Western U. S.] 
rattlehead (rat'1-hed), . A giddy, chattering 
person ; a rattlepate. 
rattle-headed (rat'l-hed'ed), a. Noisy; giddy; 
trifling. 
rattle-mouset (rat'1-mous), . [< rattle* + 
mouse. Cf. flittermonse, reremouse.] A bat. 
Not vnlike the tale of the rattle mouse. 
Puttenham, Arte of Eng. Poesie, ii. 13 [18]. 
rattlepate (rat'1-pat), n. A noisy, empty fel- 
low; a trifling or impertinent chatterer. 
rattle-pated (rat'l-pa*ted), a. Same as rattle- 
headed. 
rattler (rat'ler), w. [< rattle* + -er*.'] 1. One 
who rattles, or talks away without reflection or 
consideration; a giddy, noisy person. 2. Any- 
thing which causes a person to become rattled, 
as a smart or stunning blow. [Slang or colloq.] 
And once, when he did this in a manner that amounted 
to personal, I should have given him a rattler for himself 
if Mrs. Boffin had not thrown herself betwixt MS. 
Dickens, Our Mutual Friend. 
3. A rattlesnake. [U. S.] 
We have had rattlers killed every year ; copperheads less 
frequently. Sei. Amer., N. S., LVI. 85. 
4. A big or bold lie. [Colloq.] 6. Among 
cutlers, a special form of razor with a very thin 
blade, the faces of which are ground to an "angle 
of fifteen degrees Diamond rattler, the diamond 
rattlesnake. 
rattleran (rat'1-ran), n. The lower half of a 
fore quarter of beef; a plate-piece. [U. S.] 
Hinder Part of a Rattlesnake, showing the rattle, with Seven 
" rings" and a " button." 
structure, representing the extreme of development of the 
horn or spine in which the tail of many other serpents 
ends. It consists of several hard horny pieces loosely ar- 
ticulated together, so that when rapidly vibrated they make 
a peculiar whirring or rattling noise. Rattlesnakes are 
sluggish and naturally inoffensive reptiles, only seeking 
to destroy their prey, like other animals. When alarmed 
or irritated they prepare to defend themselves by coiling 
in the attitude best adapted for striking with the fangs, at 
the same time sounding the warning rattle, during which 
process both the head and the tall are held erect. The 
Rattlesnake (Crotalus durissus) coiled to strike. 
snake can strike to a distance of about two thirds of its 
own length. The mechanism of the jaws is such that, when 
the mouth is wide open, the fangs are erected in position 
for piercing ; and, when the mouth closes upon the wound 
the fangs have made in the flesh, a tiny stream of venom 
is spirted through each fang into the bitten part. (See cuts 
under Crotalus and poison-fang.) The poison, which is 
specially modified saliva, is secreted in avenom-gland near 
the angle of the jaw, and is conveyed by a venom-duct to the 
tooth. It is extremely dangerous, readily killing the small 
animals upon which the snake feeds, and is often fatal to 
man and other large animals. It has an acid reaction, 
neutralizable by an alkali, and is harmless when swallow- 
ed, if there is no lesion of the mucous membrane, though ex- 
ceedingly poisonous when introduced into the circulation. 
The flesh of the rattlesnake is edible, and some animals, 
as hogs and peccaries, habitually feed upon these snakes. 
Among the best-known species are the banded and the 
diamond rattlesnakes, which inhabit eastern as well as 
other regions of the United States, and sometimes attain 
a length of 6 or 6 feet ; many similarly large ones are found 
in the west, among them Crotalus pyrrhus, of a reddish 
color. The commonest species of the west is the Missouri 
rattlesnake, C. conjluentus, very widely distributed from 
the British to the Mexican boundary. Among the smaller 
species are the massasauga, Crotalophorwt tergeminus(Sis- 
trurus catenatux\ also known as the sideu'iper, from its 
habit of wriggling obliquely. One species, C. cerastes, has 
a small horn over each eye. 
rattlesnake-fern (rat'1-snak-fern), n. One of 
the moonworts or grape-ferns, Botrycnimn Vir- 
ginianum, found through a large part of North 
America and in the Old World. The sterile seg- 
ment of the frond is broadly triangular, thin and finely 
divided, and of ample size or often reduced. The name 
is apparently from the resemblance of the fruit to the rat- 
tles of a rattlesnake. 
rattlesnake-grass ( rat'l -snak-gras), n. An 
American grass, Glyceria Canadensis, a hand- 
some stout species with a large panicle of 
drooping spikelets, which are ovate, and flat- 
tish but turgid, like those of Briza, the quak- 
