different between disrepair vs rattletrap

English

Etymology

dis- +? repair

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?d?s.???p??(?)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?d?s.???p??/
• Rhymes: -??(?)

Noun

disrepair (countable and uncountable, plural disrepairs)

1. The state of being in poor condition, in need of repair.
   • 20 January 2017, Donald Trump, Inauguration Speech

     We've defended other nations' borders while refusing to defend our own; And spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas while America's infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay.

   The sewing machine is in disrepair.

   The house had fallen into such disrepair that no agent would show it to buyers.

Synonyms

• unrepair

Translations

Verb

disrepair (third-person singular simple present disrepairs, present participle disrepairing, simple past and past participle disrepaired)

1. (intransitive, rare) To get into a state of disrepair.
   • 1971, John Oliver Killens, The Cotillion, Or, One Good Bull is Half the Herd

     The house was disrepairing before your very eyes.

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