English · Slang Historical

rattletrap

Preserved but no longer current.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

The mouth. Anything shaky and mean, but pretentious and vulgar, is said to belong to the RATTLETRAP order of things.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

điều gì đó yếu ớt và thô thiển

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Era: ca. 1874 (Victorian)

Where it’s used: Origin British & Irish English

Sources & notes

Historical definition reproduced from Hotten’s The Slang Dictionary (1874, public domain; Project Gutenberg #42108, retrieved 2026-07-31). Reflects the attitudes of its era.

Topics: Historical slang (1800s)

Common questions

What does “rattletrap” mean?

The mouth. Anything shaky and mean, but pretentious and vulgar, is said to belong to the RATTLETRAP order of things.

Is “rattletrap” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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