clatter

verb

1. (intransitive)To make a rattling sound.

   “When all the bees are gone to settle, / You clatter still your brazen kettle.”

   “When he came to Nottingham, he entered that part of the market where butchers stood, and took up his inn in the best place he could find. Next, he opened his stall and spread his meat upon the bench, then, taking his cleaver and steel and clattering them together, he trolled aloud in merry tones: […]”

   “Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard, / And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred; […]”

   “I sprang up the break of the poop, and saw -- Wolf Larsen. What of my impetus and the stunning surprise, I clattered three or four steps along the deck before I could stop myself.”

   “[Hoop-and-stick] was not a little gentleman's game but was played by boys in heavy boots making a terrific noise as they clattered along on the pavements at quite a speed.”

2. (intransitive)To chatter noisily or rapidly.

   “But if that I knewe what his name hight, / For clatering of me I would him ſone quight; / For his falſe lying, of that I ſpake never, / I could make him ſhortly repent him forever: […]”

   “Here is a great deale of good matter, / loſt for lacke of telling, / Now ſicker I see, thou doeſt but clatter: / harme may come of melling.”

3. (Northern-England)To hit; to smack.

   “"I can't watch it because I have to go outside and clatter someone in the nuts!””

   ““An Orange bitch clattered seven shades of shite out of her,” Padraig eagerly piped up.”

noun

1. A rattling noise; a repetition of abrupt, sharp sounds.

   “The patter of feet, and clatter of strap and swivel, seemed to swell into a bewildering din, but they were almost upon the fielato offices, where the carretera entered the town, before a rifle flashed.”

   “There was something distinctly low-key, even wilfully alienating about the band’s performance. A scattering of OK Computer tracks were interspersed with more abstract latterday material – the clatter of 15 Step and Myxamatosis.”

   “... disintegrated Incredibly , pitched your clattering pieces to the bottom stair Of intellect , insisting that you start Again . Or proud - flesh , clotted mental pores , might claim Authentic miracle only to decry it . Campanulas .”

2. A loud disturbance.
3. Noisy talk or chatter.
4. (Ireland, informal)A large group, especially of sibling children; a lot

   “a young mother with a clatter of kids told me ... her Catholic doctor refused point-blank to advise other than the rhythm method.”

   “There haven't been any men for years. The last one I can remember was a hairy old ballad singer who, it turned out, had a wife and a clatter of kids.”

   “There are a clatter of other PRSI classes. E is for Church of Ireland ministers only. H relates to enlisted military personnel and non-commissioned officers.”

   “The children are ... all in early middle-age, which means a clatter of grandchildren, as well as her own offspring, descend on Rosemarie’s house on a regular basis.”

   “The artisan redbrick cottages that line the streets off Barrow Street in Ringsend, Dublin 4 are pretty to look at, but, while historically clatters of kids have been reared within their walls, they can seem a bit compact for modern living.”

5. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of clitter; scree.

   “Clatter, or, as it is sometimes called, Clitter, is the name given to the confused masses of granite rocks that are so frequently seen covering large areas of ground on the hill sides of the moor, or clustering around the bases of many of the tors.”