Emily Dickinson Lexicon

RAT'TLE, v.i. [D. ratelen, reutelen; G. rasseln; Dan. rasler; Sw. rassla; Gr. κροτεω, κροταλον, with a prefix. Qu. rate.]

1. To make a quick sharp noise rapidly repeated, by the collision of bodies not very sonorous. When bodies are sonorous, it is called jingling. We say, the wheels rattle over the pavement. And the rude hail in rattling tempest forms. – Addison. He fagoted his notions as they fell, / And if they rhym'd and rattl'd, all was well. – Dryden.
2. To speak eagerly and noisily; to utter words in a clattering manner. Thus turbulent in rattling tone she spoke. – Dryden. He rattles it out against popery. – Swift.

RAT'TLE, v.t.

1. To cause to make a rattling sound or a rapid succession of sharp sounds; as, to rattle a chain. – Dryden.
2. To stun with noise; to drive with sharp sounds rapidly repeated. Sound but another, and another shall, / As loud as thine, rattle the welkin's ear. – Shak.
3. To scold; to rail at clamorously; as, to rattle on servants sharply. – Arbuthnot.

RAT'TLE-HEAD-ED, a.

Noisy; giddy; unsteady.

RAT'TLES, n. [plur.]

The popular name of the croup, or cynanche trachealis of Cullen.

RAT'TLE-SNAKE, n.

A snake that has rattles at the tail of the genus Crotalus. The rattles consist of articulated horny cells, which the animal vibrates in such a manner as to make a rattling sound. The poison of the rattlesnake is dangerous.

RAT'TLE-SNAKE-ROOT, n.

A plant or root of the genus Polygala, and another of the genus Prenanthes.

RAT'TLE-SNAKE-WEED, n.

A plant of the genus Eryngium. – Fam. of Plants.

RAT'TLING, n.

A rapid succession of sharp sounds. Nah. iii.

RAT'TLING, ppr.

Making a quick succession of sharp sounds.

RAU'CI-TY, n. [L. raucus, hoarse. Raucus is the Eng. rough, – which see.]

1. Hoarseness; a loud rough sound; as, the raucity of a trumpet. – Bacon.
2. Among physicians, hoarseness of the human voice.

RAU'COUS, a.

Hoarse; harsh. [Not in use.]

RAUGHT, pp.

The old participle of Reach. [Obs.]

RAUNCH, v. [or n. See WRENCH.]

RAV'AGE, n. [Fr. from ravir, to rob or spoil, L. rapio. See Class Rb, No. 18, 19, 26, 27.]

1. Spoil; ruin; waste; destruction by violence, either by men, beasts or physical causes; as, the ravage of a lion; the ravages of fire or tempest; the ravages of an army. Would one think 'twere possible for love / To make such ravage in a noble soul. – Addison.
2. Waste; ruin; destruction by decay; as, the ravages of time.

RAV'AGE, v.t. [Fr. ravager.]

1. To spoil; to plunder; to pillage; to sack. Already Cesar / Has ravag'd more than half the globe! – Addison.
2. To lay waste by any violent force; a flood or inundation ravages the meadows. The shatter'd forest and the ravag'd vale. – Thomson.
3. To waste or destroy by eating; as, fields ravaged by swarms of locusts.

RAV'A-GED, pp.

Wasted; destroyed; pillaged.

RAV'AG-ER, n.

A plunderer; a spoiler; he or that which lays waste. – Swift.

RAV'AG-ING, ppr.

Plundering; pillaging; laying waste.

RAVE, n.

The upper side-piece of timber of the body of cart. – New England.

RAVE, v.i. [D. revelen, to rave, Eng. to revel; Sp. rabiar; Port. raivar; L. rabio, to rave, to rage or be furious; rabies, rage; It. rabbia, whence arrabbiare, to enrage; Fr. rêver, if not a contracted word; Dan. raver, to reel. See Class Rb, No. 27, 34.]

1. To wander in mind or intellect; to be delirious; to talk irrationally; to be wild. When men thus rave, we may conclude their brains are turned. – Gov. of the Tongue.
2. To utter furious exclamations; to be furious or raging as a madman. Have I not cause to rave and beat my breast? – Addison.
3. To dote; to be unreasonably fond; followed by upon; as, to rave upon antiquity. [Hardly proper.] – Locke.

RAV'EL, v.i. [rav'l.]

1. To fall into perplexity and confusion. Till by their own perplexities involv'd, / They ravel more, still less resolv'd. – Milton.
2. To work in perplexities; to busy one's self with intricacies; to enter by winding and turning. It will be needless to ravel far into the records of elder times. – Decay of Piety. The humor of raveling into all these mystical or entangled matters … produced infinite disputes. – Temple.
3. To be unwoven. [As far as my observation extends, ravel in the United States, is used only in the second sense above, viz. to unweave, to separate the texture of that which is woven or knit; so that ravel and unravel are with us always synonymous. Etymology proves this to be the true sense of the word ravel.]

RAV'EL, v.t. [rav'l; D. raaffelen and ravelen. See Class Rb, No. 3, 4, 34. This word is used in opposite senses.]

1. To entangle; to entwist together; to make intricate; to involve; to perplex. What glory's due to him that could divide / Such ravel'd int'rests, has the knot unty'd? – Waller.
2. To untwist; to unweave or unknot; to disentangle; to ravel out a twist; to ravel out a stocking. Sleep, that knits up the ravel'd sleeve of care. – Shak.
3. To hurry or run over in confusion. [Not in use.] – Digby.

RAV'EL-ED, pp.

Twisted together; made intricate; disentangled.

RAV'EL-IN, n. [Fr. id.; Sp. rebellin; Port. rebelim; It. ravellino.]

In fortification, a detached work with two faces which make a salient angle, without any flanks, and raised before the counterscarp of the place. In this it differs from a half moon, which is placed before an angle. – Encyc. Dict.

RAV'EL-ING, ppr.

Twisting or weaving; untwisting; disentangling.