spatter

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle), Verb (intransitive), Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: spat=ter

CIDE DICTIONARY

spatter, v. t. [From the root of spit salvia.].

•  To sprinkle with a liquid or with any wet substance, as water, mud, or the like; to make wet of foul spots upon by sprinkling; as, to spatter a coat; to spatter the floor; to spatter boots with mud.  [1913 Webster]

  "Upon any occasion he is to be spattered over with the blood of his people."  [1913 Webster]
•  To distribute by sprinkling; to sprinkle around; as, to spatter blood.  Pope.  [1913 Webster]
•  Fig.: To injure by aspersion; to defame; to soil; also, to throw out in a defamatory manner.  [1913 Webster]

spatter, v. i. 

 To throw something out of the mouth in a scattering manner; to sputter.  [1913 Webster]
"That mind must needs be irrecoverably depraved, which, . . . tasting but once of one just deed, spatters at it, and abhors the relish ever after."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

spatter, v. & n.
--v.
1 tr. a (often foll. by with) splash (a person etc.) (spattered him with mud). b scatter or splash (liquid, mud, etc.) here and there.
2 intr. (of rain etc.) fall here and there (glass spattered down).
3 tr. slander (a person's honour etc.).
--n.
1 (usu. foll. by of) a splash (a spatter of mud).
2 a quick pattering sound.

Etymology

frequent. f. base as in Du., LG spatten burst, spout

THESAURUS

spatter

asperge, barrage, beat, beating, bedabble, bedaub, bedew, bespatter, bespeckle, bespot, besprinkle, bloodstain, blot, blotch, blur, brand, bread, crumb, dab, dabble, damp, dampen, dash, daub, dew, dot, douche, dredge, drizzle, drum, drum music, drumbeat, drumfire, drumming, dust, eyesore, fall, few, fleck, flick, flour, flutter, flyspeck, foam, freckle, froth, handful, hose, hose down, humect, humectate, humidify, irrigate, macula, maculate, maculation, macule, mark, mizzle, moisten, paddle, palpitation, paradiddle, patch, patter, pelt, pepper, pitapat, pitter-patter, plash, pound, pounding, pour, pour with rain, powder, precipitate, pulsation, rain, rain tadpoles, rat-a-tat, rat-tat, rat-tat-tat, rataplan, rattattoo, roll, rub-a-dub, ruff, ruffle, scattering, shower, shower down, slobber, slop, slosh, smatter, smattering, smear, smirch, smouch, smudge, smut, smutch, sparge, spattering, speck, speckle, spindrift, spit, splash, splatter, splotch, splutter, sponge, spot, spray, sprinkle, sprinkling, spume, sputter, staccato, stain, stigma, stream, stud, swash, syringe, taint, tarnish, tat-tat, tattoo, throb, throbbing, thrum, thumping, tom-tom, water, weep, wet, wet down

ROGET THESAURUS

spatter

Uncleanness

VB be unclean, become unclean, rot, putrefy, ferment, fester, rankle, reek, stink, mold, molder, go bad, render unclean, dirt, dirty, daub, blot, blur, smudge, smutch, soil, smoke, tarnish, slaver, spot, smear, smirch, begrease, dabble, drabble, draggle, daggle, spatter, slubber, besmear, bemire, beslime, begrime, befoul, splash, stain, distain, maculate, sully, pollute, defile, debase, contaminate, taint, leaven, corrupt, cover with dust, drabble in the mud, roil, wallow in the mire, slobber, slabber.