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Clatter vs Rattle - What's the difference?

clatter | rattle |

In intransitive terms the difference between clatter and rattle

is that clatter is to chatter noisily or rapidly while rattle is to make a rattling noise; to make noise by or from shaking.

As nouns the difference between clatter and rattle

is that clatter is a rattling noise while rattle is a sound made by loose objects shaking or vibrating against one another.

As verbs the difference between clatter and rattle

is that clatter is to cause to make a rattling sound while rattle is to create a rattling sound by shaking or striking.

clatter

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A rattling noise.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1907, author=
  • , title= The Dust of Conflict , chapter=7 citation , passage=The patter of feet, and clatter of strap and swivel, seemed to swell into a bewildering din, but they were almost upon the fielato offices, where the carretera entered the town, before a rifle flashed.}}
  • A loud disturbance.
  • Noisy talk or chatter.
  • Synonyms

    * commotion * racket

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To cause to make a rattling sound.
  • * (Jonathan Swift)
  • You clatter still your brazen kettle.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=21 November , author=Michael Cragg , title=New music: Foxes - Home , work=the Guardian citation , page= , passage=Do we really need another doe-eyed female singer-songwriter with a penchant for electro-pop? Twenty-two-year-old Louisa Rose Allen, aka Foxes, certainly thinks so. Available as a free download via Neon Gold, her debut single Youth is a monster mix of keening vocals, slow-burn electronics and, by the song's end, big clattering drums. }}
  • * 1883 , (Howard Pyle), (The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood)
  • When he came to Nottingham, he entered that part of the market where butchers stood, and took up his inn(2) in the best place he could find. Next, he opened his stall and spread his meat upon the bench, then, taking his cleaver and steel and clattering them together, he trolled aloud in merry tones:...
  • To make a rattling noise.
  • To chatter noisily or rapidly.
  • * Spenser
  • I see thou dost but clatter .
  • (Northern English) To hit; to smack.
  • * 1988 , , Friday Night Live
  • "I can't watch it because I have to go outside and clatter someone in the nuts!”
  • * 2010 , Gerald Hansen, Hand in the Till
  • “An Orange bitch clattered seven shades of shite out of her,” Padraig eagerly piped up.

    Derived terms

    * clatterer * clatteringly * clattery

    rattle

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (onomatopoeia) a sound made by loose objects shaking or vibrating against one another.
  • I wish they would fix the rattle under my dashboard.
  • * Prior
  • The rattle of a drum.
  • A baby's toy designed to make sound when shaken, usually containing loose grains or pellets in a hollow container.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • Pleased with a rattle , tickled with a straw.
  • A device that makes a rattling sound such as put on an animal so its location can be heard.
  • A musical instrument that makes a rattling sound.
  • * Sir Walter Raleigh
  • The rattles of Isis and the cymbals of Brasilea nearly enough resemble each other.
  • (dated) Noisy, rapid talk.
  • * Hakewill
  • All this ado about the golden age is but an empty rattle and frivolous conceit.
  • (dated) A noisy, senseless talker; a jabberer.
  • * Macaulay
  • It may seem strange that a man who wrote with so much perspicuity, vivacity, and grace, should have been, whenever he took a part in conversation, an empty, noisy, blundering rattle .
  • A scolding; a sharp rebuke.
  • (Heylin)
  • (zoology) Any organ of an animal having a structure adapted to produce a rattling sound.
  • The rattle of the rattlesnake is composed of the hardened terminal scales, loosened in succession, but not cast off, and modified in form so as to make a series of loose, hollow joints.
  • The noise in the throat produced by the air in passing through mucus which the lungs are unable to expel; death rattle.
  • Derived terms

    * rattlesnake * spring a rattle * yellow rattle (plant)

    Verb

    (rattl)
  • (ergative) To create a rattling sound by shaking or striking.
  • to rattle a chain
    Rattle the can of cat treats if you need to find Fluffy.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=February 5 , author=Michael Kevin Darling , title=Tottenham 2 - 1 Bolton , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=It was a deflating end to the drama for the hosts and they appeared ruffled, with Bolton going close to a leveller when Johan Elmander rattled the bar with a header from Matt Taylor's cross.}}
  • (informal) To scare, startle, unsettle, or unnerve.
  • *
  • "Tut!" said old Bittlesham. "Tut is right," I agreed. Then the rumminess of the thing struck me. "But if you haven't dropped a parcel over the race," I said, "why are you looking so rattled ?"
  • * 2014 , Richard Rae, " Manchester United humbled by MK Dons after Will Grigg hits double", The Guardian , 26 August 2014:
  • That United were rattled , mentally as well as at times physically – legitimately so – was beyond question. Nick Powell clipped a crisp drive a foot over the bar, but otherwise Milton Keynes had the best of the remainder of the first half.
  • To make a rattling noise; to make noise by or from shaking.
  • ''I wish the dashboard in my car would quit rattling .
  • (obsolete) To assail, annoy, or stun with a ratting noise.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Sound but another [drum], and another shall / As loud as thine rattle the welkin's ear.
  • (obsolete) To scold; to rail at.
  • (rfquotek, L'Estrange)
  • To drive or ride briskly, so as to make a clattering.
  • We rattled along for a couple of miles.
  • To make a clatter with a voice; to talk rapidly and idly; with on'' or ''away .
  • She rattled on for an hour.

    Derived terms

    * death rattle * rattler * rattlesnake * rattle off * rattle one's nerves * rattle one's hocks * rattle someone's cage * rattle trap * sabre-rattling

    See also

    * jingle