Also 6 brattill, brattyll. Chiefly Sc. [This and its verb are onomatopœic, prob. with association of break, brast and rattle; cf. also brabble, brastle.]
1. A smart rattling sound, esp. of something breaking or bursting.
c. 1505. Dunbar, Turnament, 73. His harnass brak and maid ane brattill.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, IX. xi. 96. The hydduus scheild abufe him mayd a brattyll.
1839. W. Carleton, Fardorougha (ed. 2), 81. There comes an accidental brattle of thunder.
1865. Livingstone, Zambesi, xxi. 426. [Each] striving which can produce the loudest brattle while turning.
1870. Daily News, 3 Sept., 5. The brattle of a drum under my window.
2. The sound or onset of sharp rattling blows.
a. 1600. Montgomerie, Poems (1821). 75. Ȝe dou not byde a brattill.
1786. Burns, Winter Nt., iii. Or silly sheep, wha bide this brattle O’ winter war.
3. The sound of scampering feet; a resounding scamper, rush or spurt.
a. 1758. Ramsay, Poems (1844), 79. Bauld Bess flew till him wi a brattle.
1785. Burns, To a Mouse, i. Thou need na start awa … Wi’ bickerin brattle.
1828. J. Wilson, in Blackw. Mag., XXIV. 294. A breast-brushing brattle down the brae.
