Meaning

Mechanically unreliable or in disrepair..

Definitions by Sense

1. Mechanically unreliable or in disrepair.
2. (informal) A mechanical device, particularly an automobile, that is worn out, run down, or mechanically unreliable as indicated by noises it makes in operation.
3. (dated) Any piece of miscellaneous equipment or junk.
4. A type of noisemaker in which the teeth of a gear repeatedly bend and release a stiff tongue.
5. (dated, slang, derogatory) A person's mouth.

Example Sentences

2006, Paul McGeough, Bush 'palace' shielded from Iraqi storm, theage.com.au, August 26, http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/bush-palace-shielded-from-iraqi-storm/2006/08/25/1156012740594.html, All services for the biggest embassy in the world will operate independently from the rattletrap utilities of the Iraqi capital. (speaking of the new US Embassy in Baghdad)

Every cultural instinct and previous experience tells you that when you travel this far you should find, at the very least, people on camels. There should be unrecognizable lettering on the signs, and swarthy men in robes drinking coffee from thimble-sized cups and puffing on hookahs, and rattletrap buses and potholes in the road and a real possibility of disease on everything you touch—but no, it's not like that at all.

BLANCHE:What you are talking about is brutal desire--just--Desire!--the name of that rattle-trap streetcar that bangs through the Quarter, up one old narrow street and down another...

Mom always worried about our safety in my friend's rattletrap. I told her not to worry, as it can't go fast enough to be dangerous.

And they tumbled about the rattletraps under the cupboard, and rummaged the drawers in search of the sacred volume.

Shut your rattletrap!

Word Forms

• rattletraps

Synonyms for rattle trap

Related Words

When Should You Use Rattle trap?

Use rattle trap when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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