rattle off

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English

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To list or recite quickly.
    When I suggested it, he promptly rattled off a dozen reasons that it wouldn't work.
    • 2022 October 22, Maureen Dowd, “Ralph Fiennes, Master of Monsters”, in The New York Times[1]:
      When he was 14, he could name all the Bond girls. Can he still? / He rattles off the names, from Honey Ryder to Pussy Galore to Domino to Kissy Suzuki. He said he toyed with the idea of playing James Bond and had a conversation about it at one point, but he asked if it could be a black-and-white period piece set in the ’50s.
  2. (obsolete, transitive) To rail at; to scold.
    • 1712, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], “Of the Hard Shifts Mrs. Bull was Put to, to Preserve the Mannor of Bullock’s Hatch; with Sir Roger’s Method to Keep Off Importunate Duns”, in John Bull Still in His Senses: Being the Third Part of Law is a Bottomless-Pit. [], London: [] John Morphew, [], →OCLC, page 36:
      She that vvould ſometimes rattle off her Servants pretty ſharply, novv if ſhe ſavv them drink, or heard them talk profanely, never took any notice of it.

Synonyms

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Translations

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