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Creak vs Clatter - What's the difference?

creak | clatter |

In intransitive terms the difference between creak and clatter

is that creak is to make a prolonged sharp grating or squeaking sound, as by the friction of hard substances while clatter is to chatter noisily or rapidly.

In transitive terms the difference between creak and clatter

is that creak is to produce a creaking sound with while clatter is to cause to make a rattling sound.

creak

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • The sound produced by anything that creaks; a creaking.

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make a prolonged sharp grating]] or [[squeak, squeaking sound, as by the friction of hard substances.
  • * 1856 , Eleanor Marx-Aveling (translator), (Gustave Flaubert) (author), (Madame Bovary), Part III, Chapter 10:
    • Then when the four ropes were arranged the coffin was placed upon them. He watched it descend; it seemed descending for ever. At last a thud was heard; the ropes creaked as they were drawn up.
  • * 1901 , , (w, The Monkey's Paw):
    • He heard the creaking of the bolt as it came slowly back, and at the same moment he found the monkey's paw, and frantically breathed his third and last wish.
  • To produce a creaking sound with.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry.
  • * 20th century , Theodore Roethke, On the Road to Woodlawn
    • I miss the polished brass, the powerful black horses,
    The drivers creaking the seats of the baroque hearses

    Derived terms

    * creaky

    Anagrams

    * English onomatopoeias

    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