adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   That rattles.

   "a rattly air conditioner"

2. 2
   Resembling the sound of a rattle.
3. 3
   Of a vehicle, that shakes when being driven.
4. 4
   Of the lungs, chest, etc., producing raspy or gurgling sound due to excess mucus.

Example

More examples

"Tom's chest is rattly because of a respiratory tract infection."

Etymology

From rattle + -y. Compare rattling.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.