sabre-rattling

See also: sabre rattling

English

Alternative forms

• saber-rattling (mostly US), saber rattling (mostly US), sabre rattling

Etymology

From the early 20th century, when an officer would threaten to draw his sabre.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

sabre-rattling (countable and uncountable, plural sabre-rattlings)

1. (idiomatic) A flamboyant display of military power as an implied threat that it might be used.
2. (idiomatic, figuratively) Any threat, such as one company threatening another with a lawsuit.

Translations

display of military power as an implied threat

Albanian: please add this translation if you can Armenian: please add this translation if you can Belarusian: бра́зганне збро́яй n (brázhannje zbrójaj) Bulgarian: дръ́нкане на оръ́жие n (drǎ́nkane na orǎ́žie) Chinese: Mandarin: 耀武揚威 / 耀武扬威 (zh) (yàowǔ yángwēi), 炫耀武力 (xuànyào wǔlì) Dutch: sabelgekletter n, wapengekletter (nl) n Esperanto: please add this translation if you can Estonian: please add this translation if you can Finnish: sapelinkalistelu (fi) French: bruits de bottes (fr) m pl German: Säbelrasseln (de) n Hungarian: kardcsörtetés (hu) Italian: tintinnar(e) di sciabole Japanese: 威嚇的な武力 (いかくてきなぶ​りょく, ikakuteki na buryoku) Polish: pobrzękiwanie szabelką n Romanian: please add this translation if you can Russian: бряца́ние ору́жием n (brjacánije orúžijem) Slovak: please add this translation if you can Spanish: ruido de sables (es) m Swedish: sabelskrammel (sv) n Turkish: please add this translation if you can Ukrainian: брязкоті́ння збро́єю n (brjazkotínnja zbrójeju)

figuratively: any threat

Finnish: sapelinkalistelu (fi) German: Säbelrasseln (de) n

See also

• gunboat diplomacy

Verb

sabre-rattling

1. present participle and gerund of sabre-rattle

Adjective

sabre-rattling (comparative more sabre-rattling, superlative most sabre-rattling)

1. Bellicose; threatening military action.
   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 121:

     But it excited much discontent in sabre-rattling court circles which regarded Austrophilia as the most un-French of diplomatic perversions.

Related terms

• rattle
• rattle a saber
• rattle a sabre
• rattle one's saber
• rattle one's sabre
• rattle the saber
• rattle the sabre
• rattling
• saber
• sabering
• saber-rattle
• saber rattle
• sabre
• sabre rattle
• sabre-rattle
• sabring

Anagrams

• saber rattling, saber-rattling