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Crossword clues for splutter

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
splutter
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
cough
▪ Ma Katz coughed and spluttered, yellow tears coursing down her face.
▪ Then he wakes up coughing and spluttering.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
come to life/roar into life/splutter into life etc
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ His car barely made it across the finish line, spluttering and choking, before the fuel supply dried up.
▪ Ma Katz coughed and spluttered, yellow tears coursing down her face.
▪ McBride spluttered, yelled, got red in the face.
▪ Shaw is like saltwater in the face and Margaret was apt to splutter.
▪ Shells from our gunboats on the James came hoarsely spluttering over the heads of our troops.
▪ The clerk rose, stretched and looked around the deserted hall now darkening as the torches spluttered out.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Splutter

Splutter \Splut"ter\ (spl[u^]t"t[~e]r), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Spluttered (-t[~e]rd); p. pr. & vb. n. Spluttering.] To speak hastily and confusedly; to sputter. [Colloq.]
--Carleton.

Splutter

Splutter \Splut"ter\, n. A confused noise, as of hasty speaking. [Colloq.]

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
splutter

1670s, perhaps a variant of sputter, intensified by the consonant cluster of splash, splatter, etc.

splutter

1728, from splutter (n.). Related: Spluttered; spluttering.\n

Wiktionary
splutter

vb. 1 to spray droplets while speaking 2 to speak hurriedly and confusedly 3 to perform to a substandard level

WordNet
splutter
  1. n. the noise of something spattering or sputtering explosively; "he heard a spatter of gunfire" [syn: spatter, spattering, splatter, splattering, sputter, sputtering]

  2. an utterance (of words) with spitting sounds (as in rage) [syn: sputter]

  3. v. utter with a spitting sound, as if in a rage [syn: sputter]

  4. spit up in an explosive manner [syn: sputter, spit out]

Usage examples of "splutter".

Sam said, and then spluttered as water splashed off a luckless polliwog and onto him.

Barney, red in the face and spluttering, had suddenly thumped his fist on the floor, caught his breath trying to say something, and collapsed into a thunderous fit of coughing.

Withers surfaced again, coughing and spluttering, and Barney hesitated, the grail still held over his head.

Her burgeoning tirade dwindled to a spluttering search for further epithets.

Three meters to his left, he saw the prince and a spluttering, thrashing Urmi.

Morris Marina drivers drove off in their identically spluttering cars.

Other Morenians shifted on the grass, glancing from the silent priestess to their king to the spluttering Holy Father.

Most of them were coughing and spluttering and one of them clutched his abdomen as though he had a ruptured appendix.

Mosquitoes and a variety of other flying insects had managed to find a torn corner in the rusty screen door, and they circled around the spluttering yellow flame.

I came up spluttering, gasping for air, my mouth and throat, my nose, my ears, my eyes filled with choking water.

He came up spluttering and cursing in most unpriestly fashion, face, beard, and robe plastered with mud.

The gaunt old room that had entertained so many guests, emptied of its last one, with nothing but the faint chill that had come through the opened window to remind one of their presencethe fitful light of the two candles that had begun spluttering in the tall brass sticksBrutus with quiet adroitness clearing away the bottles and the dishesand a sudden burst of flame from the back log in the fireplace that made his shadow jump unevenly over the opposite walland my father resting languidly in his chair again, quite as though nothing had happenedI remember looking about me and almost doubting that anything out of the ordinary had passed in the last five minutes.

Again and again the spark flew aside, but at length there came a slight flash and a spluttering flame.

But the boggart was spluttering and stamping his feet before I was half through.

He took another bucket of water full in the face and spluttering turned to cha the mtn away.