English

Alternative forms

• saber-rattling (mostly US)

Noun

sabre-rattling ‎(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

See also

• gunboat diplomacy

Adjective

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

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

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

Anagrams

• saber rattling, saber-rattling