rattle around

English

Verb

rattle around (third-person singular simple present rattles around, present participle rattling around, simple past and past participle rattled around)

1. (informal) To take up little space in a house or other building that one occupies; to live somewhere that is needlessly spacious.

   Synonym: rattle about

   • 1978, Tom Reamy, Blind Voices:

     His mother had died within a year after his return; his wife and newborn son, both from influenza, in 1916 when Francine was four. Now the two of them rattled around in the old house, even with his office and small clinic sharing the downstairs with the kitchen, parlor, and dining room.

   • 2007, Cathy Kelly, Best of Friends, page 361:

     Jess could remember when home had been full of fun. But it wasn't like that now that Dad had left. The house was too big for just Jess and Mum, and they rattled around in it, lonely and miserable […]