spatter
/ˈspætɚ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.40 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To cover, or lie upon (something) by having been scattered, as if by splashing.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "When my wet chihuahua shook himself, I was spattered with smelly water."
- "His axel-tree, and chariot wheeles, all spatterd with the blood Hurl’d from the steeds houes, and the strakes."
- "The old Welshman came home toward daylight, spattered with candle-grease, smeared with clay, and almost worn out."
- "He began to blow at the surface of the tea. He blew too hard and the tea spattered the skirt of Nurse Clock’s uniform."
- "[…] she seem’d to have woven the Rainbow into a loose Robe, which being so rarified that she might be seen through it, and also spatter’d with radiant Jewells in the forms of Starrs […]"
- "The low, whitewashed houses between the red and green acacia trees are spattered with shell-holes […]"
Etymology
Probably from Middle Low German or Dutch spatten (“to spout, burst”) + -er (frequentative suffix). Related to spit (“saliva”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈspætɚ/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
spatter cone
spatter glass