rattling

adj, noun — 3 senses

rattling

adj
1

Lively, quick (speech, pace).

2

Dated, Emphatic, Intensifier good, fine.

  • a rattling good lunch
  • “[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer. […]”1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
2 more examples
  • To say the truth, Sophia, when very young, discerned that Tom, though an idle, thoughtless, rattling rascal, was nobody's enemy but his own […]1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling:
  • 'I'd like nothing better this minute,' said Mr Browne stoutly, 'than a rattling fine walk in the country or a fast drive with a good spanking goer between the shafts.'1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “The Dead”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 257:
Derived terms
rattlingly, rattlingness

rattling

noun
1

rattle (a sound made by objects shaking or vibrating against one another)

Derived terms
antirattling, rattlingly, rattlingness

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.