| 释义 |
ˈrattletrap, n. and a.
[f. rattle n.1 or v.1 + trap n.]
A. n.
1. pl. Nick-nacks, trifles, odds and ends, curiosities, small or worthless articles. Also sing. of a single article of this kind.
1766Goody Two-Shoes ii. (1881) 27 She used to go round to teach the Children with these Rattle-traps in a Basket. 1785in Grose Dict. Vulgar Tongue. 1820Scott Abbot xix, Your other rattle-trap yonder at Avenel, which Mistress Lilias bears about on her shoes in the guise of a pair of shoe-buckles. 1878M. C. Jackson Chaperon's Cares II. xi. 136 Rattletraps for the mantelpiece, gimcracks for the table.
2. A rattling, rickety coach or other vehicle.
1822C'tess Blessington Magic Lantern 22 The shabby rattle-trap is filled by a group that would require the pencil of Hogarth to paint. 1861F. F. Tuckett in Peaks, Passes & Glac. Ser. ii. I. 304 At length..we tore ourselves away, and at eight entered our nondescript rattletrap.
3. Any rickety or shaky thing.
1833M. Scott Tom Cringle xviii, A rickety rattletrap of a wooden ladder. 1857Trollope Barchester T. xxxv, He'd destroy himself and me too, if I attempted to ride him at such a rattle-trap as that. 1883Harper's Mag. 884/1 The steamer was an old rattletrap.
4. slang.
a. The mouth.
1824Scott Redgauntlet ch. xv, Shut your rattle-trap. 1886–7in Cheshire glossaries.
b. = rattle n.1 7.
1880Life in Debtor's Prison x, I see you're as great a rattletrap as ever.
B. adj. Rickety, shaky.
1834Sir F. B. Head Bubbles of Brunnen 115, I ascended an old rattle-trap staircase. 1892Annie Richie Rec. Tennyson, etc. iii. ix. 225 We started almost the next day in a rattle-trap chaise. |