saber rattling

1. 1.

   the ostentatious display of military power (with the implied threat that it might be used)

   Synonymssabre rattling

   Broadermilitary action

Questions about saber rattling

What does saber rattling mean?

saber rattling means "the ostentatious display of military power (with the implied threat that it might be used)".

What is another word for saber rattling?

Close synonyms include sabre rattling. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is saber rattling a common word?

saber rattling is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.