Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To scatter (a liquid) in drops or small splashes.
- v. To spot, splash, or soil.
- v. To sully the reputation of; defame.
- v. To come forth in drops or small splashes: Hot grease spattered in all directions.
- v. To fall in or as if in a shower, as rain or bullets.
- n. The act of spattering.
- n. The condition of being spattered.
- n. A spattering sound.
- n. A drop or splash of something spattered.
- n. A small amount; a smattering: just a spatter of praise.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To scatter or throw about carelessly, as some fluid or semi-fluid substance; dash or splash so as to fall in spreading drops or small quantities: as, to spatter water or mud over a person; to spatter oaths or calumnies.
- To dash or splash upon; bespatter, literally or figuratively: as, to spatter a person with water, mud, or slander.
- To sputter; act or talk in a sputtering manner.
- To undergo or cause scattering or splashing in drops or small quantities.
- n. The act of spattering, or the state of being spattered; a spattering or splashing effect.
- n. A quick succession of not very loud sounds, such as is produced by the spattering of some substance.
- n. That which is spattered; a small splash, as of something thrown or falling in drops: as, a spatter of milk, ink, or mud on one's clothes.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To sprinkle with a liquid or with any wet substance, as water, mud, or the like; to make wet of foul spots upon by sprinkling.
- v. To distribute by sprinkling; to sprinkle around.
- v. Fig.: To injure by aspersion; to defame; to soil; also, to throw out in a defamatory manner.
- v. To throw something out of the mouth in a scattering manner; to sputter.
WordNet 3.0
- v. spot, splash, or soil
- n. the act of splashing a (liquid) substance on a surface
- n. the noise of something spattering or sputtering explosively
- v. dash a liquid upon or against
- v. rain gently
Etymologies
- Perhaps of Low German origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Auditor Karen Flynn, Prosecutor Russ Hauge, and Commissioner Chris Endresen would be well advised to keep their distance to avoid spatter from the lawsuit and Canvassing Board hearing.”
Sound Politics: Residency Lawsuit Against Kitsap Commissioner Josh Brown Moves Forward
“A job well done, he thought, and watched the rain spatter the spongy rubber cobbles of the midway.”
“You know, you just reminded me of a case I had where a woman allegedly committed suicide, but there were blood spatter, there was blood spatter, which is from the impact of the gun, under her pillow.”
“Some makers still bolster these paints with components like formaldehyde, crystalline silica, acetone and ammonia to help preserve the paint or give it other properties, such as spatter-resistance.”
“Chittenden's who allowed his mind to wander, and did not concentrate, promptly made the acquaintance of the "spatter," a broad leathern strap; and the spatter hurt exceedingly, as I can testify from many personal experiences of it.”
“Plosh!" went Mr Jones right in backwards; and "spatter" went the foul mud all over his face and shirt-front, and then the poor little man tried to scramble out, but slipped in again, making himself worse than ever; but his next effort was more successful; and when Sam saw him standing amongst the potatoes looking all piebald, his heart was joyful within him, as he hurried home to tell the boys the success of their plot.”
“You are not very good at what you do, and I will enjoy your rebuttle of obnoxious spatter that you send my way.”
““Damn you to hell!” he grunted as he clenched his fist tight causing a bit of the guilt to spatter upon his brow.”
Superhero Nation: how to write superhero novels and comic books » Frank Murdock’s Review Forum
“In that context, I found phrases like these kind of disconcerting and hard to read: the passions of his bewildered heart … a maelstrom of melancholicaly erupted emotion … causing a bit of the guilt to spatter through his brow … that would never permit his repression, never allow for nothing short of predetermined apocalyptic salvation.”
Superhero Nation: how to write superhero novels and comic books » Frank Murdock’s Review Forum
“In the end, Finn proved her theory that "blood spatter can often tell you more than a test tube.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘spatter’.
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Sounds
words that describe sound
atchoo, atishoo, babble, bam, bay, beep, blast, blather, bleat, bleep, blip, bong and 242 more...
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Cepstrums
to cepstrumize a word is to reverse its 1st 4 characters in the way that "cepstrum" was derived from "spectrum" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cepstrum...
acedy, adustion, sudation, aedility, ideality, agentive, negative, agral, argal, agrestic, ergastic, alerce and 202 more...
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Rainy weather report.
Today's weather.
is it rain, sprinkles, showers, sleet, or drizzle?
Are those drops, droplets?
Is the weatherman just using the word precipitation?
Is the scientist causing ...rain, shower, sprinkle, sleet, drizzle, drops, droplets, precipitation, freezing rain, thundershower, mist, pour and 126 more...
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onomatopoeias (2 syllable)
2 syllable words that mean what they sound like. (dictionaried or un-dictionaried | onomatopoeic in nature)
onomatopoeias (1 syllable) | onomatopoeias (3+ syllables)
( op...wobble, sputter, spatter, flutter, giggle, hiccup, mumble, murmur, jangle, rattle, sizzle, rustle and 21 more...
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[Open] Frequentative
“A verb which denotes the frequent occurrence or repetition of an action, as . . . waggle from wag.” — Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia.
Other examples include bobble (bob), bustle (b...dartle, stutter, agitate, dabble, waggle, aid, argue, daunt, expect, excite, espouse, dictate and 77 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
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kalidas's Words
crepuscular, mellifluous, ephemeral, diaphanous, zeitgeist, geisterfahrer, infinite, eternal, idyllic, azure, reminiscent, oblivion and 521 more...
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kat's words
ecumenical, cacophony, clatter, marimba, bamboo, saffron, slice, mercurial, pomegranate, cranky, slipshod, scritch and 511 more...
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colleen's words ii
sibilant, sundry, spindle, distaff, device, mortar, pestle, scythe, flail, thresh, frown, elementary and 495 more...
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Reading Reading
Words from the works of Peter Reading - at least one from each (except the Schwitters-esque erosions, cut-ups etc).
overbright, pimpled, muskiness, effuse, stoup, maul, unlevel, viscid, perfidious, glibly, aloes, drouth and 449 more...
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norrell's Words
hush, dove, euphoria, nebulae, bryn mawr, darling, phoenix, nape, cream, butterscotch, cosmos, frost and 190 more...
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New Words
smarmy, purge, linger, shimmer, fiercely, frantically, shove, grunt, errand, clench, wriggle, squeeze and 168 more...
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deliciously descriptive
words I use in my writing to paint pictures.
grey, cinnamon, pale, filigree, wistful, embrace, affection, spatter, glisten, sated, shiver, graceful and 26 more...
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Carnage, Injury, and Verbs, Oh My!
Actually, the title covers it well.
slick, spatter, crunch, burst, sprayed, jagged, gape, clash, crush, snap, gash, struck and 10 more...
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splat
splat, blob, blorp, slop, spatter, spit, blip, blat, splatter, blot, drip, drib and 15 more...
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Guro
Erotic Grotesque Nonsense.
nosebleed, choking, slicing, spatter, tearing, ripping, speckled, stained, gasping, gash, slit, dribble and 10 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for spatter.
yarb ... They had
no need to slaughter the beast - spattered gore
stained Zygmunt's forearms a fortnight.
- Peter Reading, Zygmunt, from Nothing for Anyone, 1977 Jun 26, 2008