rattle off

English

Pronunciation

  • (file)

Verb

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:
      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, John Arbuthnot, The History of John Bull:
      She would sometimes rattle off her servants sharply.

Synonyms

Translations

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