Definition of "spatter"

His axel-tree, and chariot wheeles, all spatterd with the bloodHurl’d from the steeds houes, and the strakes.

c. 1611, George Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets‎, London: Nathaniell Butter, Book 20, p. 286

The old Welshman came home toward daylight, spattered with candle-grease, smeared with clay, and almost worn out.

1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company

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.

1965, William Trevor, chapter 8, in The Boarding House‎, King Penguin, published 1983, page 85

[…] 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 […]

1660, Nathaniel Ingelo, Bentivolio and Urania‎, London: Richard Marriot, Book 2, pp. 79-80

The low, whitewashed houses between the red and green acacia trees are spattered with shell-holes […]

1949, Arthur Koestler, Promise and Fulfilment‎, New York: Macmillan, Book 2, Chapter 2, p. 218

The roof’s serrated ridge, the single chimney-stack with its four flues, stood out faintly against the sky spattered with a few dim stars.

1955, Samuel Beckett and Patrick Bowles (translators), Molloy by Samuel Beckett, in Three Novels, London: Calder, 1994, p. 128

Patches of light sifting through them [the trees] spattered the concrete walks with sunshine.

1960, Flannery O’Conner, chapter 6, in The Violent Bear It Away, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, published 2007

Then they began to climb, steering to open uplands spattered with yellow cinquefoil […]

1996, Guy Vanderhaeghe, chapter 19, in The Englishman’s Boy‎, New York: Anchor, page 178

Perhaps ev’n I, reserv’d by angry FateThe 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.

1720, Alexander Pope, transl., The Iliad of Homer‎, London: Bernard Lintott, Volume 6, Book 22, lines 92-97, p. 7

O God, that I were in some wide fieldWith nothing but my battle-axe and himTo spatter his brains!

1877, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Harold‎, London: Henry S. King, act II, scene 2, page 70

Streaks of DeHaven’s real face can be seen through the trademark face as the clown slams the hood shut in the spattered rain.

1989, David Foster Wallace, “Westward the course of empire takes its way”, in Girl with Curious Hair‎

The cabman spattered his few words of English.

1922, D. H. Lawrence, chapter 12, in Aaron’s Rod‎, London: Martin Secker, page 139

[…] 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 […]

1929, Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel‎, New York: Scribner, Part 1, Chapter 8, p. 74

[…] a man with a machine gun sits in a cage suspended from the ceiling and moving like a trolley spatters bullets into the cells.

1945, Henry Miller, “The Soul of Anaesthesia”, in The Air-Conditioned Nightmare‎, New York: New Directions, pages 88–89

they fondly thinking to allayThir appetite with gust, instead of FruitChewd bitter Ashes, which th’ offended tasteWith spattering noise rejected:

1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, lines 564-567

Where the headquarters tent sags, water drips down and spatters on the table.

1956, Langston Hughes, chapter 8, in I Wonder as I Wander‎, New York: Hill and Wang, published 1993, page 374

Later, the two priests left together, […] their hoods pulled up because it had begun to spatter with rain.

1990, Edna O’Brien, “‘Oft in the Stilly Night’”, in Lantern Slides‎, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, page 17

Most mornings he roasted lamb, turning it on a spit, where it spattered and dripped […]

1994, Paul Theroux, chapter 25, in Millroy the Magician‎, New York: Random House, page 220

Let envy spatter what it can, / This Embryon will prove a man.

1647, John Hall, “A Genethliacon to the Infant Muse of his dearest Friend” in Poems, London: J. Rothwell

Why how now, Madam Flirt? / If you thus must chatter; / And are for flinging Dirt, / Let’s try who best can spatter;

1728, John Gay, The Beggar’s Opera, Dublin: George Risk et al., Act II, Scene 13, “Good-morrow, Gossip Joan,” p. 42

I Wrote a letter long ago, / But did not like it, you must know, / So rather chose to take my time, / And write my own defence in rhime, / Though not in your be-crabbed stile, / To spatter, threaten, and revile;

1770, George Saville Carey, “To a Friend” in Analects in Verse and Prose, London: P. Shatwell et al., Volume 2, p. 171

[…] there is nothing but may be represented upon some principle or other apparently worthy, without the wretched necessity of having recourse to spatter and vilify others.

1793, Charles Dibdin, chapter 9, in The Younger Brother‎, volume 3, London: for the author, page 143

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:—

1763, Richard Bentley, Patriotism, a Mock-Heroic, London: M. Hinxman, Canto 5, pp. 65-66

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

1913, Willa Cather, O Pioneers!‎, Part 5, Chapter 1

She crosses the plaza, receives a quick spatter from the fountain […]

1998, Michael Cunningham, The Hours‎, New York: Picador, page 15

[…] I groped from step to step, collecting the shattered earthenware, and drying the spatters of milk from the banister with my pocket-handkerchief.

1847, Emily Brontë, chapter 13, in Wuthering Heights‎

[…] they led the way in through the huge arch, over the icy ground that was filthy with the spatter of the birds.

1995, Philip Pullman, “Northern Lights”, in The Golden Compass‎, New York: Knopf, published 2003, Part 3, Chapter 19, p. 286

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.

1917, Hugh Walpole, The Green Mirror‎, New York: George H. Doran, Book 3, Chapter 3, p. 344

[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.

1904, Joseph Conrad, chapter 8, in Nostromo‎

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

1919, Henry Blake Fuller, chapter 32, in Bertram Cope’s Year‎

He went through the darkened parlor with its low early evening spatter of conversation.

1952, John Steinbeck, chapter 48, in East of Eden‎, New York: Penguin, published 1981, page 606

[…] punctuated by the roar of great automobiles, overtaking gangsters, the spatter of tommy-guns mowing them down […]

1964, James Baldwin, “Nothing Personal”, in Collected Essays‎, New York: Library of America, published 1998, page 692

The attendant had a droopy lower lip, a rust-tone complexion with a spatter of freckles across the cheekbones […]

1988, Don DeLillo, Libra, New York: Viking, Part 2, “12 August,” p. 270

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.

2001, Nadine Gordimer, The Pickup‎, Penguin, published 2002, page 18