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When people call a vehicle rattletrap, they mean it is old, loose, and in bad condition. You can almost hear it: bits shake and clink as it goes down the road. It is informal and a little joking — more at home in chat and stories than in a mechanic’s report. You will meet it before a noun (a rattletrap van) and as a noun itself (that old rattletrap). Though actually, it is not only cars; people stretch it to other tired machines that sound as if they might fall apart. It does not, by itself, mean the thing is unsafe to ride in — only that it is worn out and noisy. Younger speakers may not use it much; it has a slightly old, colourful feel.
老爺車；破到開起來喀喀響的舊車
組成From rattle (the shaky noise loose parts make) + trap (an old word for a small vehicle).
同家族的字
- rattlethe shaky noise that old, loose parts make
原始詞典資料5 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
rattletrapadj
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Mechanically unreliable or in disrepair.
- 2006, Paul McGeough, Bush 'palace' shielded from Iraqi storm, theage.com.au, August 26, http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/bush-palace-shielded-from-iraqi-storm/2006/08/25/1156012740594.html, 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)
- 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.
rattletrapnoun
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informalA 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.
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datedAny piece of miscellaneous equipment or junk.
- And they tumbled about the rattletraps under the cupboard, and rummaged the drawers in search of the sacred volume.
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A type of noisemaker in which the teeth of a gear repeatedly bend and release a stiff tongue.
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derogatorydatedslangA person's mouth.
- Shut your rattletrap!
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。