rattle around

present singular third person rattles around · participle present rattling around · participle past rattled around · past rattled around

1. informalTo take up little space in a house or other building that one occupies; to live somewhere that is needlessly spacious.

   Jess could remember when home had been full of fun. But it wasn't like that now that Dad had left. The house was too big for just Jess and Mum, and they rattled around in it, lonely and miserable […]

   2007, Cathy Kelly, Best of Friends, page 361

   1 more example

   His mother had died within a year after his return; his wife and newborn son, both from influenza, in 1916 when Francine was four. Now the two of them rattled around in the old house, even with his office and small clinic sharing the downstairs with the kitchen, parlor, and dining room.

   1978, Tom Reamy, Blind Voices

   Synonyms: rattle about