spatter
Americanverb (used with object)
-
spatters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
spattered,
past participle, past
-
spattering
present participle
-
to scatter or dash in small particles or drops.
The dog spattered mud on everyone when he shook himself.
-
to splash with something in small particles.
to spatter the ground with water.
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to sprinkle or spot with something that soils or stains.
verb (used without object)
-
spatters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
spattered,
past participle, past
-
spattering
present participle
-
to send out small particles or drops, as falling water.
rain spattering on a tin roof.
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to strike a surface in or as in a shower, as bullets.
noun
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the act or the sound of spattering.
the spatter of rain on a roof.
-
a splash or spot of something spattered.
verb
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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
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(tr) to sprinkle, cover, or spot (with a liquid)
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(tr) to slander or defame
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(intr) to shower or rain down
bullets spattered around them
noun
-
the sound of something spattering
-
something spattered, such as a spot or splash
-
the act or an instance of spattering
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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spattersimple
-
spatterssimple
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have spatteredperfect
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has spatteredperfect
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am spatteringprogressive
-
are spatteringprogressive
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is spatteringprogressive
-
have been spatteringperfect progressive
-
has been spatteringperfect progressive
Past
-
spatteredsimple
-
had spatteredperfect
-
was spatteringprogressive
-
were spatteringprogressive
-
had been spatteringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of spatter
1575–85; perhaps < Dutch spatt ( en ) to splash + -er 6; compare Dutch spatterig literally, spattery
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."
Vocabulary lists containing spatter
Charlotte's Web
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Mr. Popper’s Penguins
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My Brother Sam is Dead
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
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
In the resulting enigmatic dreamscapes, muted purples, cornflower blues and soft ochres bloom and spatter and fleck in surprising, delicate ways.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 24, 2024
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
The bears seemed not to see the mess, however, and they led the way in through the huge arch, over the icy ground that was filthy with the spatter of the birds.
From "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman
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
She wipes the spatters away absentmindedly before scattering a teaspoon of salt into the chickpeas.
From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali
The house’s roof, the front steps and the driveway were spattered with white blotches, as if the area had been the site of a fierce paintball battle.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 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
On one residential street, two machines about 20 yards apart are spattered with a bright white substance.
From BBC ● Mar. 1, 2026
English was the common language, spattered with classical Latin.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 16, 2024
Day after day the sky was gray as rain spattered against the windows.
From "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" by Eleanor Coerr
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
Florida seized the jar from Mr. Hopper and smashed it on the floor, sending quarters and shards of glass spattering across the floor like hundreds of silver beetles.
From "Ruby Holler" by Sharon Creech
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
