Idioms

rattle-trap

rattle-trap

slang A rickety, broken-down, clunky old motor vehicle. I can't believe he's still driving the same old rattle-trap that he had way back in high school. I've sunk more money in this rattle-trap than the damn thing is even worth.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

rattle-trap

n. a rattly (old) car; any rattly vehicle. I hear Ted’s rattle-trap in the driveway.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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References in classic literature
To me she was not an old rattle-trap carting about the world a lot of coal for a freight--to me she was the endeavor, the test, the trial of life.
"Men like plenty of room for their rattle-traps; don't you think that ought to satisfy me?"
Leave all your rattle-traps behind you: to be overhauled, if necessary, at his honor the admiral's discretion.
The program already has replaced some real rattle-trap stoves, installer Matthew Clement of Ambassador Piping said.
He learned how to weld up GI .45 barrels and fit them to rattle-trap Government Models long before there was a Bar Sto barrel to buy or a CNC machine-checkered frame to sell.
That's to take nothing away from the genuine heroes - but if they could have called on the go-anywhere off-roader of today as opposed to the rattle-trap of yesteryear, there wouldn't have been so many loosened fillings to add to all the discomfort.
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