subs. (common).—1. The mouth; hence (2) a chatterbox: see RATTLE.
1879. W. H. THOMSON, Whitecross and the Bench, 180. You’re as great a RATTTETRAP as ever.
3. (colloquial).—Anything old and tumble-down: spec. a broken-down rattling conveyance; also (4) personal belongings: in jocular disparagement, and (GROSE) ‘any curious, portable piece of machinery or philosophical apparatus.’ As adj. = worn-out; crazy.
1830. BULWER-LYTTON, Paul Clifford, xxxiv. 299. Where poor Judy kept her deeds and RATTLETRAPS.
1857. A. TROLLOPE, Barchester Towers, xxxv. “He’d destroy himself and me too, if I attempted to ride him at such a RATTLETRAP as that.” A RATTLETRAP! The quintain that she had put up with so much anxious care…. It cut her to the heart to hear it so denominated by her own brother.
d. 1861. CATHERINE GORE, Castles in the Air, xxxiv. Hang me if I’d ha’ been at the trouble of conveying her and her RATTLE-TRAPS last year across the channel.
