Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Rattle \Rat"tle\, v. t.
   1. To cause to make a ratting or clattering sound; as, to
      rattle a chain.

   2. To assail, annoy, or stun with a ratting noise.

            Sound but another [drum], and another shall As loud
            as thine rattle the welkin's ear.     --Shak.

   3. Hence, to disconcert; to confuse; as, to rattle one's
      judgment; to rattle a player in a game. [Colloq.]

   4. To scold; to rail at. --L'Estrange.

   {To rattle off}.
      (a) To tell glibly or noisily; as, to rattle off a story.
      (b) To rail at; to scold. ``She would sometimes rattle off
          her servants sharply.'' --Arbuthnot.

Rattle \Rat"tle\, n.
   1. A rapid succession of sharp, clattering sounds; as, the
      rattle of a drum. --Prior.

   2. Noisy, rapid talk.

            All this ado about the golden age is but an empty
            rattle and frivolous conceit.         --Hakewill.

   3. An instrument with which a ratting sound is made;
      especially, a child's toy that rattle when shaken.

            The rattles of Isis and the cymbals of Brasilea
            nearly enough resemble each other.    --Sir W.
                                                  Raleigh.

            Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw. --Pope.

   4. A noisy, senseless talker; a jabberer.

            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.      --Macaulay.

   5. A scolding; a sharp rebuke. [Obs.] --Heylin.

   6. (Zo["o]l.) Any organ of an animal having a structure
      adapted to produce a ratting sound.

   Note: The rattle of the rattlesnake is composed of the
         hardened terminal scales, loosened in succession, but
         not cast off, and so modified in form as to make a
         series of loose, hollow joints.

   7. 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[^a]le}.

   {To spring a rattle}, to cause it to sound.

   {Yellow rattle} (Bot.), a yellow-flowered herb ({Rhinanthus
      Crista-galli}), the ripe seeds of which rattle in the
      inflated calyx.

Rattle \Rat"tle\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Rattled}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Rattling}.] [Akin to D. ratelen, G. rasseln, AS. hr[ae]tele
   a rattle, in hr[ae]telwyrt rattlewort; cf. Gr. ? to swing,
   wave. Cf. {Rail} a bird.]
   1. To make a quick succession of sharp, inharmonious noises,
      as by the collision of hard and not very sonorous bodies
      shaken together; to clatter.

            And the rude hail in rattling tempest forms.
                                                  --Addison.

            'T was but the wind, Or the car rattling o'er the
            stony street.                         --Byron.

Source : WordNet®

rattle
     v 1: make short successive sounds
     2: shake and cause to make a rattling noise

rattle
     n 1: a rapid series of short loud sounds (as might be heard with
          a stethoscope in some types of respiratory disorders);
          "the death rattle" [syn: {rattling}, {rale}]
     2: a baby's toy that makes percussive noises when shaken
     3: loosely connected horny sections at the end of a
        rattlesnake's tail