spatterverb/ˈspætɚ/

• 1

  To splash (someone or something) with small droplets.

  • 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.
• 2

  To cover, or lie upon (something) by having been scattered, as if by splashing.

  • […] 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 […]
• 3

  To distribute (a liquid) by sprinkling; to sprinkle around.

  • to spatter blood
  • Perhaps ev’n I, reserv’d by angry Fate The last sad Relick of my ruin’d State, (Dire Pomp of sov’reign Wretchedness!) must fall, And stain the Pavement of my regal Hall; Where famish’d Dogs, late Guardians of my Door, Shall lick their mangled Master’s spatter’d Gore.
• 4

  To send out or disperse (something) as if in droplets.

  • The cabman spattered his few words of English.
  • […] they had seen him, at the sound of the alarm, rush like a madman from his window in Gant’s shop, leaving the spattered fragments of a watch upon his desk […]
• 5

  To send out small droplets; to splash in small droplets (on or against something).

  • Make sure the pieces of fish are dry before you put them into the hot oil so that it doesn’t spatter.
  • they fondly thinking to allay Thir appetite with gust, instead of Fruit Chewd bitter Ashes, which th’ offended taste With spattering noise rejected:
• 6

  obsoleteTo injure by aspersion; to defame.

  • 1647, John Hall, “A Genethliacon to the Infant Muse of his dearest Friend” in Poems, London: J. Rothwell, Let envy spatter what it can, This Embryon will prove a man.
  • 1728, John Gay, The Beggar’s Opera, Dublin: George Risk et al., Act II, Scene 13, “Good-morrow, Gossip Joan,” p. 42, Why how now, Madam Flirt? If you thus must chatter; And are for flinging Dirt, Let’s try who best can spatter;

spatternoun/ˈspætɚ/

• 1

  A spray or shower of droplets hitting a surface.

  • 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:
  • Ivar turned the mare and urged her into a sliding trot. Her feet sent back a continual spatter of mud.
• 2

  A spot or spots of a substance spattered on a surface.

  • There was what looked like a spatter of blood on one wall.
  • […] I groped from step to step, collecting the shattered earthenware, and drying the spatters of milk from the banister with my pocket-handkerchief.
• 3

  The sound of droplets hitting a surface.

  • 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.
• 4

  A burst or series of sounds resembling the sound of droplets hitting a surface.

  • [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.
  • The rapid handing out of the diplomas brought frequent applause—bits, spatters, volleys, as the case might be.
• 5

  A collection of objects scattered like droplets splashed onto a surface.

  • 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 […]
  • 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.