spatter
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈspætɚ/
rhymes: -ætə(ɹ)
Forms: form: spatter [from 1790s]
form: spatters
Etymology: Probably from Middle Low German or Dutch spatten (“to spout, burst”) + -er (frequentative suffix). Related to spit (“saliva”).
Senses: examples: text: 1763, Richard Bentley, Patriotism, a Mock-Heroic, London: M. Hinxman, Canto 5, pp. 65-66,
As a rough Water-Dog, New-England’s Breed,
Fresh plaister’d from some Pond with Mud and Weed,
Round from his Fleece the dirty Puddle shakes
Rejoicing in the Spatter that he makes:
text: Ivar turned the mare and urged her into a sliding trot. Her feet sent back a continual spatter of mud.
ref: 1913, Willa Cather, O Pioneers!, Part 5, Chapter 1:
text: She crosses the plaza, receives a quick spatter from the fountain […]
ref: 1998, Michael Cunningham, The Hours, New York: Picador, page 15:
glosses: A spray or shower of droplets hitting a surface.
examples: text: There was what looked like a spatter of blood on one wall.
text: […] I groped from step to step, collecting the shattered earthenware, and drying the spatters of milk from the banister with my pocket-handkerchief.
ref: 1847, Emily Brontë, chapter 13, in Wuthering Heights:
text: […] they led the way in through the huge arch, over the icy ground that was filthy with the spatter of the birds.
ref: 1995, Philip Pullman, “Northern Lights”, in The Golden Compass, New York: Knopf, published 2003, Part 3, Chapter 19, p. 286:
glosses: A spot or spots of a substance spattered on a surface.
examples: text: As Henry lay awake that first night the hiss and spatter of the rain against his window seemed to have a personal grudge against him.
ref: 1917, Hugh Walpole, The Green Mirror, New York: George H. Doran, Book 3, Chapter 3, p. 344:
glosses: The sound of droplets hitting a surface.
examples: text: [Father Roman] had shriven many simple souls on the battlefields of the Republic, kneeling by the dying on hillsides, in the long grass, in the gloom of the forests, to hear the last confession with the smell of gunpowder smoke in his nostrils, the rattle of muskets, the hum and spatter of bullets in his ears.
ref: 1904, Joseph Conrad, chapter 8, in Nostromo:
text: The rapid handing out of the diplomas brought frequent applause—bits, spatters, volleys, as the case might be.
ref: 1919, Henry Blake Fuller, chapter 32, in Bertram Cope’s Year:
text: He went through the darkened parlor with its low early evening spatter of conversation.
ref: 1952, John Steinbeck, chapter 48, in East of Eden, New York: Penguin, published 1981, page 606:
text: […] punctuated by the roar of great automobiles, overtaking gangsters, the spatter of tommy-guns mowing them down […]
ref: 1964, James Baldwin, “Nothing Personal”, in Collected Essays, New York: Library of America, published 1998, page 692:
glosses: A burst or series of sounds resembling the sound of droplets hitting a surface.
examples: text: 1988, Don DeLillo, Libra, New York: Viking, Part 2, “12 August,” p. 270,
The attendant had a droopy lower lip, a rust-tone complexion with a spatter of freckles across the cheekbones […]
text: It was untidy; the quarters of someone not used to looking after herself; to seat himself he removed the stained cup and plate and a spatter of envelopes, sheets of opened letters, withered apple-peel, old Sunday paper, from a chair.
ref: 2001, Nadine Gordimer, The Pickup, Penguin, published 2002, page 18:
glosses: A collection of objects scattered like droplets splashed onto a surface.
Derived terms: bespatter
spatter cone
spatter glass
spattery