Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. in senses of speech.

2. a dicebox.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Rattle. a Dice Box.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

3. a coach.

1791		‘Flash Lang.’ in Confessions of Thomas Mount 19: A coach, a rattle.
1791		H. Lemoine ‘Education’ in Attic Misc. 117: While in a rattle sit two blowens flash, / Salt tears fast streaming from each bungy eye.
1820		Jack Randall’s Diary 3: Tom Trot’s bran new Rattle, From Tothill Fields came trotting down.
1824		‘Sonnets for the Fancy’ in Egan Boxiana III 622: [as 1791].
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. Rattle, a coach; rattling cove, a coachman: .

4. in pl. uses [abbr. SE death-rattle].

5. money, cash; thus have a bit of rattle v., to be well-off.

1848		J.R. Lowell Biglow Papers (1880) 80: Ez long’z the people get their rattle, / Wut is there fer ’m to grout about?
1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 103: I should say the old girl ’ad quite a bit o’ rattle to ’er.

6. spirit, ebullience.

1879		‘’Arry in Parry’ in Punch 15 Nov. 217/2: I put on the rattle to rights in the style that’s so taking shay noo.
1895		‘’Arry on Harry’’ in Punch 24 Aug. 93/2: But there’s one thing [...] you carn’t borrer, and that’s my rattle and go.

7. an opportunity, a chance [play on sense 2].

1938		D. Runyon ‘Big Shoulders’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 584: They are the only propositions that give you a dead-square rattle.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 72: I figure that with any kind of a square rattle I will have a better chance of nailing him than he has of nailing me.

8. an act of sexual intercourse [note the double entendre in Burns c.1800: ‘But it’s in among the blankets that I like best, / To get a jolly rattle at the cuckoo’s nest’].

[1786		‘The Court of Equity’ in Burns Merry Muses of Caledonia (1965) 212: An’ gied her canister a rattle].
1963		P. O’Hara Red Sailor 12: I trunked her in the doorway [...] Not a bad rattle either, mate.
1966		Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.
2005		P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 110: He knows that I gave Jessica an old rattle.

9. (UK drugs) withdrawal from narcotics addiction [the aches and pains that rattle the body].

2004

Observer 25 Apr. 11/2: Last time I came in [...] I had a straight rattle [cold turkey] and I got really depressed. [...] Coming off heroin is just too hard.