Other forms: rattling, rattles, rattled
A rattle is the baby's toy that clatters when you shake it — a plastic ring with beads inside, waved, dropped, and waved again. It is also the noise itself: the rattle of a loose window in the wind, the rattle of coins in a tin.
As a verb, rattle is what loose things do — the letterbox rattles, an old bus rattles down the hill, hail rattles on the roof. Rattle someone means to shake their nerves, and rattled is the everyday word for flustered: one awkward question and he was rattled. Two phrasal verbs earn their keep: rattle off means to produce something quickly and easily from memory, and rattle on means to talk far too long. A rattlesnake takes its name from the dry rings on its tail, which it rattles as a warning before it strikes.
1nounrattleA baby's toy that makes a sharp noise when it is shaken.
“The baby dropped his rattle over the side of the pram for the fourth time.”
2nounrapidA rapid series of short hard sounds.
“She woke to the rattle of rain on the tin roof.”
3verbcauseTo make, or to cause something to make, short knocking sounds.
“The wind rattled the windows all night.”
4verbloseTo make someone lose their confidence (informal).
“One awkward question rattled him and he lost his place.”
rattle is a toy.
Rattle entered Middle English as ratelen, and nobody is certain from where — perhaps from Middle Dutch ratelen, perhaps home-grown and related to Old English hrætele, a plant named for the rattling noise it made. Either way the word is imitative: it is the sound spelled out. The noun came later, around 1500, off the back of the verb.
Middle Dutch
ratelen
Middle English
ratelen
English, today
rattle
Built from
From Middle English ratelen, of unknown origin; perhaps borrowed from Middle Dutch ratelen or of native origin related to Old English hratele, hrætele (“a plant known for its rustling or rattling sound”), ultimately imitative. The noun (c. 1500) is from the verb.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA