Meanings
nounrattlebones (plural rattlebones)
- informalA tottering person or thing.
[…] a rattlebones of a horse!
1918, Alice Calhoun Haines, Firecracker Jane, page 1951 more example
A rattlebones of a woman in a little-girl dress came toward him […]
1969, Edmund Schiddel, Good Time Coming, page 34 - informalA rickety or ramshackle vehicle.
"Why, did you expect […] that I should return in the old rattlebones of a britschka which my father bestowed on me at parting? I made a bonfire of it at Milan."
1829, Catherine Grace Frances Gore, Hungarian Tales, volume 2, page 156Synonyms: rattletrap
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA rickety or ramshackle vehicle.
Similar
Origin
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
APA
rattlebones. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rattlebones
MLA
“rattlebones.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rattlebones. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “rattlebones,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rattlebones.
Source: rattlebones on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.