1879. Macmillan's Mag., xl., 501. I'll go to London Bridge rattler, and take a dearer ride.
1885. Meredith, Diana of the Crossways, 111 367. "I rattled at her; and oh! dear me, she perks on her hind heels and defies me to prove."
1888. Daily Chronicle, 10 Dec. Bachelor came on with a rattle and won by a length and a half.
1888. Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, xii. They've fetched a rattling price. Ibid, xxviii. A rattling good magistrate.
1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 19 Mar., 7, 1. Mr. Labouchere made a rattling speech against the Reuter contract.
1898. Pink 'Un and Pelican, 58. Far be it from me to suggest . . . the painful and vulgar expedient of macing the rattler, but the name of the person, if any, who produced . . . twice the necessary 15s. 8d. for the tickets is not forthcoming.
Rattle-ballocks, subs. phr.
(venery).—The female pudendum:
see Monosyllable.
Rattletrap, subs. (common).—1.
The mouth; hence (2) a chatterbox:
see Rattle.
1880, Life in a Debtors' Prison, 180. You're as great a ratttetrap as ever.
3. (colloquial).—Anything old and tumble-down: spec. a broken-down rattling conveyance; also (4) personal belongings: in jocular disparagement, and (Grose) 'any curious, portable piece of machinery or philosophical apparatus.' As adj. = worn-out; crazy.
1830. Lytton, Clifford, xxxiv. 299. Where poor Judy kept her deeds and rattletraps.
1857. Trollope, Barchester Towers, xxxv. "He'd destroy himself and me too, if I attempted to ride him at such a rattletrap as that." A rattletrap! The quintain that she had put up with so much anxious care. . . . It cut her to the heart to hear it so denominated by her own brother.
d.1861. Mrs. Gore, Castles in the Air, xxxiv. Hang me if I'd ha' been at the trouble of conveying her and her rattle-traps last year across the channel.
Rat-trap, subs. phr. (obsolete).—A
bustle; a bird-cage (q.v.).
Raughty. See Rorty.
Rave, subs. (colloquial).—A strong
liking; a craze: as 'X has a
rave on Miss Z.'
Ravilliac, subs. (Old Cant).—'Any
Assasin.'—B. E. (c.1696).
Raw, subs. (colloquial).—(1) A
novice: also Johnny Raw; (2)
anything uncooked, as oysters,
sugar, &c.
1820. Corcoran, The Fancy Glossary. Raw. An Innocent.
1868. Chamb. Journal, 15 Feb., 110. Soft-going raws an' delicate boys with romantic heads.
1886. U.S. Cons. Rep., lx. 96. The stock of raws on hand amounted . . .
1889. Century Dict., s.v. Raw, 1, 11. i. An oyster of a kind preferred for eating raw: as a plate of raws.
2. (colloquial).—A tender point; a foible: as 'to touch on the raws' = to irritate by allusion or joke; to rub up the wrong way.
1837. Marryat, Snarley-Yow. This was touching up Vanslyperken on the raw.
1839. Comic Almanack, Sept. [Hotten], 188. Now they're gettin' out of natur, for their raws is all a healing.
1868. Collins, Moonstone, 1. xxii. Sergeant Cuff had hit me on the raw, and, though I did look down upon him with contempt, the tender place still tingled for all that.
1882. Stevenson, New Arab. Nights, 248 (1884). The pleasantry touched him on the raw.
1900. Kipling, Stalky & Co., 65. The 'honour of the house' was Prout's weak point, and they knew well how to flick him on the raw.
