to make a quick succession of sharp, inharmonious noises, as by the collision of hard and not very sonorous bodies shaken together; to clatter.-to drive or ride briskly, so as to make a clattering; as, we rattled along for a couple of miles.-to make a clatter with the voice; to talk rapidly and idly; to clatter; -- with on or away; as, she rattled on for an hour.-to cause to make a rattling or clattering sound; as, to rattle a chain.-to assail, annoy, or stun with a rattling noise.-hence, to disconcert; to confuse; as, to rattle one's judgment; to rattle a player in a game.-to scold; to rail at.-a rapid succession of sharp, clattering sounds; as, the rattle of a drum.-noisy, rapid talk.-an instrument with which a rattling sound is made; especially, a child's toy that rattles when shaken.-a noisy, senseless talker; a jabberer.-a scolding; a sharp rebuke.-any organ of an animal having a structure adapted to produce a rattling sound.-the noise in the throat produced by the air in passing through mucus which the lungs are unable to expel; -- chiefly observable at the approach of death, when it is called the death rattle. see r/le.