sabre rattling

1. 1.

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

   Synonymssaber rattling

   Broadermilitary action

Questions about sabre rattling

What does sabre rattling mean?

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

What is another word for sabre rattling?

Close synonyms include saber 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 sabre rattling a common word?

sabre 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.