SABER-RATTLING Definition & Meaning

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saber-rattling

[ sey-ber-rat-ling ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

a show or threat of military power, especially as used by a nation to impose its policies on other countries.

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of saber-rattling¹

First recorded in 1920–25; saber, rattle ¹, -ing ¹

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Idioms and Phrases

A flamboyant display of military power; also, aggressive blustering. For example, There had been a great deal of saber rattling between the two nations but hostilities had never broken out . This term, originating about 1920 and alluding to an officer indicating he would draw his saber, at first referred to threatening military force but later was extended to more general use, as in Both candidates engaged in pre-debate saber rattling .

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Example Sentences

The White House's saber-rattling against the American judiciary, a body conceived to hold government officials and elected politicians in check, prompted a rare rebuke from Supreme Court chief justice John G. Roberts.

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Trump has kept to his saber-rattling words.

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That may be what Trump’s saber-rattling, in the end, is all about.

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And, overall, the tone is much more contentious than during the West Coast negotiations, where there was relatively little saber-rattling and few people on either side viewed a strike as a serious threat.

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In a statement Monday, after the labor board’s most recent ruling against the university system, UAW Local 4811 President Rafael Jaime called on “UC to face reality,” charging it with “legal saber-rattling.”

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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