I was trying to find the background to "rattle your cage" and came across a cliché site (I posted its URL in Links for Linguaphiles).
I had always thought the phrase meant to wake someone up, so to speak, and to get them going. For example, if someone is late to a meeting, someone might say, "I will go rattle his cage." I wondered if it had developed from zoo animals, and if not, how. On that site they didn't give the origin of it, but they said that it means "to make you angry or upset." I suppose that could apply to rattling the cages of zoo animals, too, but I hadn't ever thought it meant that. Have I always misunderstood this phrase? Or, does it have 2 meanings?
I guess I think of that phrase as being generally annoying. You know, like bugging someone until they growl.
Now, I might use "Jiggle my elbow" for that sort of thing, especially when it comes to somebody interrupting me. You are working hard on a crossword puzzle say, and someone keeps trying to make small talk. They are bugging me with their annoying talking...and I am about to growl!
Bob, I haven't heard of it used your way. So...no one here uses it to mean to nudge someone to take action?
You know, CW, you may be right. I haven't found a book or site yet that gives the actual meaning and background (where is Tinman when I need him?), but all the sites that talk about it use it like you do or like that cliché site defines it. I will keep looking, though.
I really love my definition for it, though, because I can just see some sleepy, curled-up hamster being jolted as I "rattle his cage" to get him to come to my meeting.
I was at a bookstore tonight (I must buy that OED!), and I found 2 references with "rattle your cage" in it. Shu was with me, and he agrees with my definition of the word. The first book was a source on American Slang, and it defined it as "to annoy." We weren't convinced because those slang dictionaries are often unreliable, and it had no sources of validation. The second, however, defined it the same way and was more reliable...an American-Oxford Dictionary. Now, again, they had no validating sources, either, but I am ready to give in on this phrase. It apparently means, as CW says, "to annoy or agitate."
