One of the mysteries of the English language finally explained.
A sharp rattling sound.‘a distant brattle of thunder’
- ‘Since everything that follows -- from the shrieking brattle of "Two Sails on a Sound" to the enchanted tribal vocal exercises of "Slippi" to the slow-building celebratory scuttle of "Too Soon" -- feels similarly crazed, drug-induced, and apparitional, Here Comes the Indian makes for particularly lucid listening.’
- ‘Such was Whittier on one side, a militant poet of reform, sending forth verses that had the brattle of trumpets and the waving of banners in them’
- ‘The day was particularly fine, and with the exception of a few slight showers which fell through the sunshine, accompanied by two or three brattles of thunder, nothing occurred during the whole of the proceedings which had the slightest tendency to mar the enjoyment.’
- ‘The wrestling could have been a washout as the rain reached comical proportions and just kept going, with the occasional long brattle of thunder thrown in, but a dense crowd gathered under brollies to watch competitions of the highest quality and intensity.’
- ‘In place of the brattle of riveters' hammers you now hear birdsong.’
Make or cause to make a rattling sound.‘we banged and brattled the cupboards’
- ‘Where so long I have heard only the brattling and moaning of the wind, what means this tenser, far-piercing sound?’
- ‘Over the ledge lies an Atlantic of vapor without sail or shore, and through the hemlocks on North mountain the wind brattles like a hurricane.’
- ‘On top of that, he is made to sing phrases like: ‘These brattling birds!’’
- ‘From these mountains and hills a vast number of streams and brattling brooks discharge themselves into the lake; its principal tributary however, is the Endric, which flows into the south-east corner of the lake.’
- ‘It is a lively sound, a busy tinkling, the incessant brattling and from time to time rushing, crashing sound of this falling ice, and trees suddenly erecting themselves when relieved of their loads.’
Early 16th century: probably imitative, from a blend of break and rattle.
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