spatter

Etymology

Probably from Middle Low German or Dutch spatten (“to spout, burst”) + -er (frequentative suffix). Related to spit (“saliva”).

verb

1. (transitive) 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 c. 1611, George Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets, London: Nathaniell Butter, Book 20, p. 286
   1965, William Trevor, The Boarding House, King Penguin, 1983, Chapter 8, p. 85, 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.
2. (transitive, figurative) 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 […] 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
   1955, Samuel Beckett and Patrick Bowles (translators), Molloy by Samuel Beckett, in Three Novels, London: Calder, 1994, p. 128, 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.
   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
3. (transitive) 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. 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 field With nothing but my battle-axe and him To 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
4. (transitive, figurative) To send out or disperse (something) as if in droplets.
   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
5. (intransitive) 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.
   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
6. (obsolete, transitive, figurative) To 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;
   1770, George Saville Carey, “To a Friend” in Analects in Verse and Prose, London: P. Shatwell et al., Volume 2, p. 171, 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;
   […] 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

noun

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. 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
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. 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
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. 1917, Hugh Walpole, The Green Mirror, New York: George H. Doran, Book 3, Chapter 3, p. 344
4. (figurative) 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. 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
5. (figurative) 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. 2001, Nadine Gordimer, The Pickup, Penguin, published 2002, page 18