rattle the sabre

present singular third person rattles the sabre · participle present rattling the sabre · participle past rattled the sabre · past rattled the sabre

1. alternativeAlternative form of sabre-rattle.

   Moreover, "in an age when such destructive forms of weapons exist as atomic and hydrogen weapons, it is impossible to threaten and rattle the sabre, ... to act as people once did in the period of colonial conquests."

   1974, Yaacov Ro'i, From Encroachment to Involvement, page 182

   2 more examples

   The nineteenth century waas par excellence one of naval scares, not necessarily boosted by diplomatic crisis as in the period of intermittent war, when it had been Britain's turn to rattle the sabre, impressment serving as a successful diplomatic weapon in 1770 (the Falklands), 1787 (Holland) and 1790 (Nootka Sound).

   2003, J. S. Bromley, Corsairs and Navies, 1600-1760, page 495

   As he told the kaiser's son, the crown prince, 'In any war which is unleashed without compelling reason, not only the Hohenzollern crown but the future of Germany is at stake. ... to rattle the sabre at any diplomatic entanglement without having honor, security, or the future of Germany endangered is not only bold beyond reason, but criminal.'

   2014, Gordon Martel, The Month that Changed the World: July 1914 and WWI

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see rattle, sabre.