sabre rattling
sab·re·ratt·ling
noun
Origin
From the early 20th century, when an officer would threaten to draw his sabre.
Phrases
- gunboat diplomacy
Related words
Broader terms
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.