different between clunker vs rattletrap

English

Etymology

From clunk +? -er.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?kl??k?/
• Rhymes: -??k?(?)

Noun

clunker (plural clunkers)

1. (informal) A decrepit motor car.
   • 2004, Teralee E. M. Bird, What the Herald Angel Sang (Seraphim Trilogy Book One), ?ISBN:

     The only rig nobody'd recognize is that clunker that Vic drove here in, and he won't take it.

2. (informal) Anything which is in poor condition or of poor quality.
   • 1974, Erma Bombeck, "Who's Been Playing At Erma's Typewriter?," Ocala Star-Banner, 3 Oct., p. 12A (retrieved 2 Sep. 2009):

     I bought an old clunker of a typewriter.

   • 2006, Elizabeth Crane, "Books: Best book by a Chicago author" (Review of Trouble by Patrick Somerville), Time Out Chicago, 28 Dec. (retrieved 2 Sep. 2009):

     All of the stories have a subtle undercurrent of brutality, and the writing is consistently sharp, direct and darkly funny, and there’s not a clunker in the bunch.

Translations

Anagrams

• crunkle

English

Etymology

From rattle +? trap.

Pronunciation

Adjective

rattletrap (not comparable)

1. Mechanically unreliable or in disrepair.
   • 2006, Paul McGeough, Bush 'palace' shielded from Iraqi storm, theage.com.au, August 26, [1],

     All services for the biggest embassy in the world will operate independently from the rattletrap utilities of the Iraqi capital. (speaking of the new US Embassy in Baghdad)

   • 2000, Bill Bryson, In a Sunburned Country, p. 10,

     Every cultural instinct and previous experience tells you that when you travel this far you should find, at the very least, people on camels. There should be unrecognizable lettering on the signs, and swarthy men in robes drinking coffee from thimble-sized cups and puffing on hookahs, and rattletrap buses and potholes in the road and a real possibility of disease on everything you touch—but no, it's not like that at all.

   • 1947, Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene Four

     BLANCHE:What you are talking about is brutal desire--just--Desire!--the name of that rattle-trap streetcar that bangs through the Quarter, up one old narrow street and down another...

Noun

rattletrap (plural rattletraps)

1. (informal) A mechanical device, particularly an automobile, that is worn out, run down, or mechanically unreliable as indicated by noises it makes in operation.

   Mom always worried about our safety in my friend's rattletrap. I told her not to worry, as it can't go fast enough to be dangerous.

2. (dated) Any piece of miscellaneous equipment or junk.
3. (dated, slang, derogatory) A person's mouth.

   Synonyms: trap, yap

   Shut your rattletrap!

Synonyms

• banger
• bucket of bolts
• clunker
• jalopy
• rustbucket

Translations

References

• 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary