sabre-rattling
IPA: sˈeɪbɝrˈætɫɪŋ
noun
- (idiomatic) A flamboyant display of military power as an implied threat that it might be used.
- (idiomatic, figuratively) Any threat, such as one company threatening another with a lawsuit.
adjective
- Bellicose; threatening military action.
sabre rattling
IPA: sˈeɪbɝrˈætɫɪŋ
noun
- Alternative form of sabre-rattling [(idiomatic) A flamboyant display of military power as an implied threat that it might be used.]
Examples of "sabre-rattling" in Sentences
- But more sabre-rattling about Iran's nuclear program will not help.
- Still, men who want something other than sabre-rattling should maybe give it a try.
- In contrast, Red Neck Donny and the rest of the teabagger clowns can only resort to he-man sabre-rattling.
- Erdoğan's ambition to be recognised as mastermind and trailblazer in the Middle East gives his rhetoric a sabre-rattling undertone.
- According to Forbes, Barack Obama is the new Jimmy Carter; weak and wishy-washy in the face of the threats from North Korea's nuclear sabre-rattling.
- With sabre-rattling by the hawks in Congress and pressure from Israel for a tougher stand against Iran, there is now increased talk of a military attack against Tehran's nuclear programme.
- If the recent sabre-rattling over the Straits of Hormuz had not been enough, Iran said it intended at Fordo to enrich uranium to the highly sensitive 20% enrichment level, regarded in the industry as the technical threshold for bomb-grade material.
- But within the context of following a militaristic, unilaterally acting, anti-social, sabre-rattling, "crusade" starting, fear-mongering, hate-generating machine, and viewed as a signal to us and the rest of the world that THIS behavior is what is expected of good neighbors, not the other, then it makes more sense.
- In the great race to prosperity—and thus global hegemony—presently taking place between India and China, anyone interested in the survival of a liberal-minded and tolerant civilization must be rooting for the victory of India, infused with the best traditions of Westminster-style representative institutions, over a sabre-rattling, resentful and totalitarian China.