clatter
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clatter
- /ˈklætəː/ UK
- [ˈklætʰəː] UK
- /ˈklæɾɚ/ US
- [ˈklæɾɹ̩] US
Rhymes with -ætə(ɹ)
Where it comes from
From Middle English clatren (“to make a rattling sound”), from Old English *clatrian (attested as the Late Old English gerund clatrung), of onomatopoeic origin. Compare Dutch klateren, kletteren.
The noun, derived from the verb, is first attested in the 14ᵗʰ century.
verb clatters · clattering · clattered
- To make a rattling sound. When all the bees are gone to settle, / You clatter still your brazen kettle.
- To chatter noisily or rapidly. But if that I knewe what his name hight, / For clatering of me I would him ſone quight; / For his falſe lying, of that I ſpake never, / I could make him ſhortly repent him forever: […]
- To hit; to smack. "I can't watch it because I have to go outside and clatter someone in the nuts!”
noun clatters
- A rattling noise; a repetition of abrupt, sharp sounds. 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.
- A large group, especially of sibling children; a lot a young mother with a clatter of kids told me ... her Catholic doctor refused point-blank to advise other than the rhythm method.
- Alternative form of clitter; scree.clitter Clatter, or, as it is sometimes called, Clitter, is the name given to the confused masses of granite rocks that are so frequently seen covering large areas of ground on the hill sides of the moor, or clustering around the bases of many of the tors.
Similar: commotion, racket, clatter, clattering, clacking, crackling, crepitation, knocking, patter, pitter-patter, pit-a-pat, rapping
