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spatter

[spat-er]
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verb (used with object)
  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)
  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.
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noun
  1. the act or the sound of spattering: the spatter of rain on a roof.
  2. a splash or spot of something spattered.
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Origin of spatter

1575–85; perhaps < Dutch spatt(en) to splash + -er6; compare Dutch spatterig literally, spattery
Related formsspat·ter·ing·ly, adverbun·spat·tered, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for spattered

Historical Examples

  • And that he done it with an apron on to kape from gettin' burnt and spattered?

    The Widow O'Callaghan's Boys

    Gulielma Zollinger

  • Everybody knew it, because it was daubed and spattered with paint.

    Winning His Way

    Charles Carleton Coffin

  • They spattered into the waters all around him, but wide of their mark.

    A Prisoner of Morro

    Upton Sinclair

  • Some of them spattered the ends of their noses with black chocolate.

    Rootabaga Stories

    Carl Sandburg

  • You do not wish to see me spattered over the beautiful isle?

British Dictionary definitions for spattered

spatter

verb
  1. to scatter or splash (a substance, esp a liquid) or (of a substance) to splash (something) in scattered dropsto 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 downbullets 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
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Word Origin

C16: of imitative origin; related to Low German, Dutch spatten to spout, Frisian spatteren to splash
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for spattered

spatter

v.

1570s (implied in spattering), possibly a frequentative verb from the stem of Dutch or Low German spatten "to spout, burst," of imitative origin. Related: Spattered.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper