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  1. splutter love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To make repeated or sporadic spitting sounds.
  2. v. To speak hastily and incoherently, as when confused or angry.
  3. v. To utter or express hastily and incoherently.
  4. n. A spluttering noise.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To sputter.
  2. To talk hastily and confusedly.
  3. To utter confusedly or indistinctly, as through haste, excitement, embarrassment, or the like: often with out or forth: as, to splutter out an apology.
  4. n. Bustle; stir; commotion.

Wiktionary

  1. v. to spray droplets while speaking
  2. v. to speak hurriedly and confusedly
  3. v. to perform to a substandard level

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. colloq. To speak hastily and confusedly; to sputter.
  2. n. colloq. A confused noise, as of hasty speaking.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. utter with a spitting sound, as if in a rage
  2. v. spit up in an explosive manner
  3. n. the noise of something spattering or sputtering explosively
  4. n. an utterance (of words) with spitting sounds (as in rage)

Etymologies

  1. From a variant of sputter (Wiktionary)
  2. Perhaps alteration of sputter. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Draught horses are led around the smaller ring, and nearby dozens of stationary engines chuff, splutter and bounce on individual pitches.”

    The Guardian: Country diary: Stithians, Cornwall

  • “Jeffrey sez, We're getting more and more excellent panoramic photographers uploading their spherical panoramas to our site - but this one made me splutter with delight.”

    Boing Boing

  • “A minute later the splutter of an exhaust told them the silencer had been taken off.”

    WHOSE BUSINESS IS TO LIVE

  • “If they dont splutter over their retraction at this point, then they would more likely be at home being a patient of a mental ward rather than managing one. on July 7, 2009 at 11: 08 am grim rupert”

    Criminals Insist On Being Naughty SHOCK! « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG

  • “An unexpected beat on a snare drum made a French horn splutter out a belching sound, and in the back of the band something big emitted a snort, one that made Lisa think of a blue whale that had just surfaced after a week underwater.”

    Simon & Schuster: Bubble in the Bathtub

  • “It is of a monster enterprise monstering itself, of a family that can't get a grip – on itself or dad; of a dynasty falling apart as shareholders splutter and investors turned chicken cross the road.”

    The Guardian: News Corp saga is gripping: let's soak up the family drama

  • “The recording itself is thrilling, if warts-and-all, with Pappano singing along, while the audience cough and splutter between movements.”

    The Guardian: Mahler: Symphony No 6 – review

  • “This isn't reality TV!" they splutter, settling in for 60 solid minutes watching a woman fake-tanned the shade of a third-degree burn glueing diamante craft beads on to her vagina.”

    The Guardian: Grace Dent's TV OD

  • “Just ignore that part and splutter on about how calling something socialist that appears to be socialist is somehow over thetop.”

    The Volokh Conspiracy » The Rhetoric of Opposition

  • “The party's birthday is being celebrated at what seems a moment of triumph in all these categories: China has never been richer or more engaged in the world; investment in science and technology is sky high; the economy is booming while others splutter.”

    The Guardian: China's Confucian makeover | Isabel Hilton

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synonyms (4)

Words with the same meaning

  1. sputter
  1. speak
  1. splash
  1. speech

hypernyms (12)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. emit
  2. let out
  1. let loose
  2. utter
  1. spit out
  2. expectorate
  1. cough out
  2. cough up
  1. spit up
  2. noise
  1. utterance
  2. vocalization

same context (14)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. patter
  2. plop
  1. chank
  2. fusillade
  1. whir
  2. pentoxide
  1. spurt
  2. yowl
  1. salvos
  2. rumble
  1. clunk
  2. firestorm
  1. crackle
  2. ylide

reverse dictionary (3)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. splutter
  1. swatter
  1. glutter

tags (1)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. portmanteau

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Lists

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‘splutter’ has been looked up 1534 times, loved by 2 people, added to 12 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 10.