different between jostle vs rattle

English

Etymology

Originally justle (“to have sex with”), formed from Middle English jousten, from the Old French joster (“to joust”), from Latin iuxt? (“next to”), from iung? (“join, connect”), equivalent to joust +? -le.

Pronunciation

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

Verb

jostle (third-person singular simple present jostles, present participle jostling, simple past and past participle jostled)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To bump into or brush against while in motion; to push aside.
   • 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, London: J. Johnson, Part 1, Chapter 13, Section 3, pp. 434-435,^[1]

     Besides, various are the paths to power and fame which by accident or choice men pursue, and though they jostle against each other, for men of the same profession are seldom friends, yet there is a much greater number of their fellow-creatures with whom they never clash. But women are very differently situated with respect to each other—for they are all rivals.

   • 1832, Isaac Taylor, Saturday Evening, Chapter 12, p. 214,^[2]

     It is not that there are several systems of movement, physical, intellectual, and moral, which are perpetually jostling each other, or which clash whenever they come in contact, and which move on by the one vanquishing the other. But, on the contrary, each of these economies takes its uninterrupted course, as if there were no other moving within the same space […]

   • 1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, Volume 1, Chapter 3, pp. 370-371,^[3]

     […] when the lord of a Lincolnshire or Shropshire manor appeared in Fleet Street, he was as easily distinguished from the resident population as a Turk or a Lascar. […] Bullies jostled him into the kennel. Hackney coachmen splashed him from head to foot. […]
2. (intransitive) To move through by pushing and shoving.
   • 1920, F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise, Book One, Chapter 3,^[4]

     Axia and Amory, acquaintances of an hour, jostled behind a waiter to a table at a point of vantage; there they took seats and watched.

3. (transitive) To be close to or in physical contact with.
   • 1859, Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species, London: John Murray, Chapter 4, p. 114,^[5]

     […] the advantages of diversification of structure, with the accompanying differences of habit and constitution, determine that the inhabitants, which thus jostle each other most closely, shall, as a general rule, belong to what we call different genera and orders.

4. (intransitive) To contend or vie in order to acquire something.
   • 1819, Walter Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor, in Tales of My Landlord, Edinburgh: Archibald Constable, Third Series, Volume 1, Chapter 1, p. 22,^[6]

     Dick, who, in serious earnest, was supposed to have considerable natural talents for his profession, and whose vain and sanguine disposition never permitted him to doubt for a moment of ultimate success, threw himself headlong into the crowd which jostled and struggled for notice and preferment.

   • 1917, Rudyard Kipling, “The Children,” poem accompanying the story “The Honours of War” in A Diversity of Creatures, London: Macmillan, pp. 129-130,^[7]

     […] Our statecraft, our learning

     Delivered them bound to the Pit and alive to the burning

     Whither they mirthfully hastened as jostling for honour.

5. (dated, slang) To pick or attempt to pick pockets.

Translations

See also

• justle
• joust

Noun

jostle (plural jostles)

1. The act of jostling someone or something; push, shove.
   • 1722, Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders, London: J. Cooke, 1765, p. 241,^[8]

     I had full hold of her Watch, but giving a great Jostle, as if somebody had thrust me against her, and in the Juncture giving the Watch a fair pull, I found it would not come, so I let it go that Moment, and cried out as if I had been killed, that somebody had trod upon my Foot […]

2. The action of a jostling crowd.
   • 1865, Harriet Beecher Stowe (under the pseudonym Christopher Crowfield), The Chimney-Corner, Boston: Ticknor & Field, 1868, Chapter 12, p. 291,^[9]

     For years to come, the average of lone women will be largely increased; and the demand, always great, for some means by which they many provide for themselves, in the rude jostle of the world, will become more urgent and imperative.

Translations

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??æt.l?/
• Rhymes: -æt?l

Etymology 1

Verb from Middle English [Term?], either from Old English [Term?] (not attested) or Middle Dutch ratelen, ultimately imitative. The noun (c. 1500) is from the verb.

Noun

rattle (countable and uncountable, plural rattles)

1. (onomatopoeia) a sound made by loose objects shaking or vibrating against one another.
   • 1902, Arthur M. Winfield, The Rover Boys in the Mountains Chapter 4

     The rattle of a drum.

2. A baby’s toy designed to make sound when shaken, usually containing loose grains or pellets in a hollow container.
3. A device that makes a rattling sound such as put on an animal so its location can be heard.
4. (music) A musical instrument that makes a rattling sound.

   • The rattles of Isis and the cymbals of Brasilea nearly enough resemble each other.

5. (dated) Noisy, rapid talk.
   • 1627, George Hakewill, Apologie […] of the Power and Providence of God

     All this adoe about the golden age is but an empty rattle and frivolous conceipt.

6. (uncountable, now rare) Trivial chatter; gossip.
   • 1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, III.v.5:

     “And pray where, Lady Honoria,” cried Mrs. Delvile, “do you contrive to pick up all this rattle?”

7. (dated) A noisy, senseless talker; a jabberer.
8. A scolding; a sharp rebuke.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Heylin to this entry?)

9. (zoology) Any organ of an animal having a structure adapted to produce a rattling sound.

10. The noise produced in the throat by air passing through mucus which the lungs struggle to clear.
11. The noise in the throat produced by the air in passing through mucus which the lungs are unable to expel - sometimes occurs as a person nears death; death rattle.
12. Any plant of the genus Rhinanthus, whose seeds produce a rattling noise in the wind.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

rattle (third-person singular simple present rattles, present participle rattling, simple past and past participle rattled)

1. (transitive, ergative) To create a rattling sound by shaking or striking.
2. (transitive, informal) To scare, startle, unsettle, or unnerve.
   • 1923, P. G. Wodehouse, The Inimitable Jeeves

     “Tut!” said old Bittlesham. “Tut is right”, I agreed. Then the rumminess of the thing struck me. “But if you haven’t dropped a parcel over the race,” I said, “why are you looking so rattled?”

   • 2014, Richard Rae, "Manchester United humbled by MK Dons after Will Grigg hits double", The Guardian, 26 August 2014:

     That United were rattled, mentally as well as at times physically – legitimately so – was beyond question. Nick Powell clipped a crisp drive a foot over the bar, but otherwise Milton Keynes had the best of the remainder of the first half.

3. (intransitive) To make a rattling noise; to make noise by or from shaking.

4. (transitive, obsolete) To assail, annoy, or stun with a ratting noise.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To scold; to rail at.

   • This came to the Bishop's Ear, who presently sent for the Curate, Rattled him to some Tune, with Menaces to the Highest Degree

6. To drive or ride briskly, so as to make a clattering.

7. To make a clatter with one's voice; to talk rapidly and idly; often with on or away.

Translations

Derived terms

See also

Etymology 2

From Arabic ?????? (ra?l), variant of classical ?????? (ri?l), ultimately from Ancient Greek ????? (lítra). Doublet of liter.

Noun

rattle (plural rattles)

1. (historical units of measure) Alternative form of rottol: a former Middle Eastern and North African unit of dry weight usually equal to 1–5 lb (0.5–2.5 kg).

Anagrams

• Tatler, latter