scatter

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To cause to separate and go in different directions.
2. v. To distribute loosely by or as if by sprinkling; strew: scattering confetti from the upper windows.
3. v. Physics To deflect (radiation or particles).
4. v. To separate and go in different directions; disperse.
5. v. To occur or fall at widely spaced intervals.
6. n. The act of scattering or the condition of being scattered.
7. n. Something scattered.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To throw loosely about; strew; sprinkle.
2. To besprinkle or strew as with something thrown here and there.
3. To separate and drive off in disorder and in all directions; rout; put to disorderly retreat or flight; disperse; dissipate: as, to scatter an enemy's forces; to scatter a mob.
4. Hence To throw into confusion; overthrow; dispel; put to flight: as, to scatter hopes, fears, plans, etc.
5. To let fall as by accident or at random; drop.
6. Synonyms To diffuse, spread, distribute.
7. 3 and Disperse, Dispel, etc. See dissipate.
8. To separate and disperse; proceed in different directions; hence, to go hither and thither at random.
9. Specifically, to throw shot too loosely or without concentration of the charge: said of a gun.
10. In optics, to reflect diffusely or irregularly, as from a rough surface.

Wiktionary

1. v. ergative To (cause to) separate and go in different directions; to disperse.
2. v. transitive To distribute loosely as by sprinkling.
3. v. transitive (physics) To deflect (radiation or particles).
4. v. intransitive To occur or fall at widely spaced intervals.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To strew about; to sprinkle around; to throw down loosely; to deposit or place here and there, esp. in an open or sparse order.
2. v. To cause to separate in different directions; to reduce from a close or compact to a loose or broken order; to dissipate; to disperse.
3. v. Hence, to frustrate, disappoint, and overthrow.
4. v. To be dispersed or dissipated; to disperse or separate.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. to cause to separate and go in different directions
2. v. distribute loosely
3. n. the act of scattering
4. v. cause to separate
5. n. a haphazard distribution in all directions
6. v. strew or distribute over an area
7. v. move away from each other
8. v. sow by scattering