rattlebones means A tottering person or thing.
Etymology
From rattle + bones.
noun
- A tottering person or thing.“[…] a rattlebones of a horse!”
- A rickety or ramshackle vehicle.“"Why, did you expect […] that I should return in the old rattlebones of a britschka which my father bestowed on me at parting? I made a bonfire of it at Milan."”