Definition of "rat-a-tat-tat" []

• A series of short sharp sounds, as that made by knocking on a door. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "What other character do you know of who is searingly brilliant, stunningly engaging in his rat-a-tat-tat conversational wizardly, totally and even smugly tactless and rude - and still adored?"
• "The rent on Metro is great but it sure is hard to take a business call with the rat-a-tat-tat sound made by the bus crawling down the seemingly war-ravaged pavement of the Boulevard."
• "First-person eyewitness testimony enables narrative history to rise above the rat-a-tat-tat chronology of an after-action report."