spatter

American  

[spat-er] / ˈspæt ər /

verb (used with object)

• spatters,
  present (3rd person singular)
• spattered,
  past participle,  past
• spattering
  present participle

1. to scatter or dash in small particles or drops.

   The dog spattered mud on everyone when he shook himself.

2. to splash with something in small particles.

   to spatter the ground with water.

3. to sprinkle or spot with something that soils or stains.

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verb (used without object)

• spatters,
  present (3rd person singular)
• spattered,
  past participle,  past
• spattering
  present participle

1. to send out small particles or drops, as falling water.

   rain spattering on a tin roof.

2. to strike a surface in or as in a shower, as bullets.

noun

1. the act or the sound of spattering.

   the spatter of rain on a roof.

2. a splash or spot of something spattered.

spatter British  

/ ˈspætə /

verb

1. to scatter or splash (a substance, esp a liquid) or (of a substance) to splash (something) in scattered drops

   to spatter mud on the car

   mud spattered in her face

2. (tr) to sprinkle, cover, or spot (with a liquid)

3. (tr) to slander or defame

4. (intr) to shower or rain down

   bullets spattered around them

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noun

1. the sound of something spattering

2. something spattered, such as a spot or splash

3. the act or an instance of spattering

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unspattered
  adjective
• spatteringly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Participles

• spattering
  present
• spattered
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• spatter
  simple
• spatters
  simple
• have spattered
  perfect
• has spattered
  perfect
• am spattering
  progressive
• are spattering
  progressive
• is spattering
  progressive
• have been spattering
  perfect progressive
• has been spattering
  perfect progressive

Past

• spattered
  simple
• had spattered
  perfect
• was spattering
  progressive
• were spattering
  progressive
• had been spattering
  perfect progressive

Future

• will spatter
  simple
• will have spattered
  perfect
• will be spattering
  progressive
• will have been spattering
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of spatter

1575–85; perhaps < Dutch spatt ( en ) to splash + -er ⁶; compare Dutch spatterig literally, spattery

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Explanation

If you spatter something, you splash it with tiny drops of a liquid, like the way the artist Jackson Pollock dripped and spattered paint across a large canvas. You can spatter sauce across your stretched-out pizza dough, and you can also listen to rain spatter against the windows during a storm. Spatter can describe the splashing of a substance, like paint on a piece of wood, or the sound something makes, like the spatter of pebbles against the side of the shed. Experts believe spatter comes from the imitative Low German verb spatten, "to spout or burst."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

spatter spatters spattered spattering

The family believe the blood spatter evidence - which forms part of an ongoing investigation that will see a court judge decide whether a criminal case is warranted - could suggest external force was used.

From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026

“We don’t have photographs, site plans, measurements, the recovery of projectiles, blood spatter analysis, all of those things we would normally get at a crime scene.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 7, 2026

Mejia also said that he saw what appeared to be blood spatter on Grossman’s vehicle, but that he did not have the material analyzed.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 3, 2024

They also say that documents turned over by prosecutors in discovery suggest that the areas of the shirt where blood spatter could have been present tested negative for blood.

From New York Times ● Jan. 23, 2023

Then he’d cleaned the spatter of rain and moisture from the floor of the refuse room, and made sure there were no scraps of rope or other signs of their presence.

From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo

But the big challenge is that metal parts created with additive manufacturing have defects -- like pores, or "voids," rough surfaces and large spatters -- that significantly compromise the finished part's reliability and durability.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 22, 2024

It's hard to look fashionable in a Christmas jumper covered in mince pie crumbs and spatters of mulled wine, so we're not here to make anybody feel bad this festive season.

From BBC ● Dec. 27, 2023

The forensic minutiae are duly intriguing: Blood spatters are closely analyzed, timetables meticulously reconstructed.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2023

Bloodstain-pattern analysis is a forensic discipline whose practitioners regard the drops, spatters and trails of blood at a crime scene as clues that can sometimes be used to reconstruct and even reverse-engineer the crime itself.

From Salon ● Feb. 1, 2023

He is covered with Parisian soot and grime, overlaid with splatters and spatters of paint: ochre, brick red, orange, lemon chrome, cobalt blue, green, black, zinc white.

From "Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers" by Deborah Heiligman

The rallying cry became the union’s slogan, then spattered through the culture like sparks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026

After hours spent in the thick pollution-choking parts of northern Thailand, Pon Doikam gets home and blows her burning nose to find blood clots spattered across the tissue.

From Barron's ● Apr. 3, 2026

English was the common language, spattered with classical Latin.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 16, 2024

The candles in the chandeliers overflowed and spattered wax on the clothes of the fancy people below.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2023

At first, the cans just bent over and started to collapse into themselves, but after a few blows they split open, and chili spattered out.

From "The Wednesday Wars" by Gary D. Schmidt

You’ll also hear a larger, darker woofling from the tailpipes, and phlegmy, spattering cough as the rpm fall off.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 6, 2026

It’s a veritable Jackson Pollock spattering of woes.

From Barron's ● Jan. 29, 2026

A spattering of anti-war protests was quickly stamped out.

From BBC ● Feb. 15, 2025

And whether a ring, a miniature moon, or some other scenario, spattering our planet with space rocks may have created conditions that set up what we think of as “modern” oceans.

From Slate ● Oct. 21, 2024

There were lights all down the Union line, a few horses moving, here and there a bugle, lights in the cemetery, a spattering of lights in Gettysburg.

From "The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War" by Michael Shaara

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