Crossword clues for sputter
sputter
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sputter \Sput"ter\, v. t. To spit out hastily by quick, successive efforts, with a spluttering sound; to utter hastily and confusedly, without control over the organs of speech.
In the midst of caresses, and without the least
pretended incitement, to sputter out the basest
accusations.
--Swift.
Sputter \Sput"ter\, n. Moist matter thrown out in small detached particles; also, confused and hasty speech.
Sputter \Sput"ter\ (sp[u^]t"t[~e]r), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Sputtered (-t[~e]rd); p. pr. & vb. n. Sputtering.] [From the root of spout or spit to eject from the mouth. Cf. Splutter.]
To spit, or to emit saliva from the mouth in small, scattered portions, as in rapid speaking.
-
To utter words hastily and indistinctly; to speak so rapidly as to emit saliva.
They could neither of them speak their rage, and so fell a sputtering at one another, like two roasting apples.
--Congreve. -
To throw out anything, as little jets of steam, with a noise like that made by one sputtering.
Like the green wood . . . sputtering in the flame.
--Dryden.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1590s, "to spit with explosive sounds," cognate with Dutch sputteren, West Frisian sputterje, from Proto-Germanic *sput- (see spout (v.)). Related: Sputtered; sputtering. The noun is attested from 1670s.
Wiktionary
n. Moist matter thrown out in small detached particles; also, confused and hasty speech. vb. 1 To spit, or to emit saliva from the mouth in small, scattered portions, as in rapid speaking. 2 To utter words hastily and indistinctly; to speak so rapidly as to emit saliv
3 To throw out anything, as little jets of steam, with a noise like that made by one sputtering. 4 (context transitive English) To spit out hastily by quick, successive efforts, with a spluttering sound; to utter hastily and confusedly, without control over the organs of speech. 5 (context physics intransitive English) To cause surface atoms or electrons of a solid to be ejected by bombarding it with heavy atoms or ions 6 (context physics transitive English) To coat the surface of an object by sputtering
WordNet
n. the noise of something spattering or sputtering explosively; "he heard a spatter of gunfire" [syn: spatter, spattering, splatter, splattering, splutter, sputtering]
an utterance (of words) with spitting sounds (as in rage) [syn: splutter]
v. make an explosive sound; "sputtering engines"
cause to undergo a process in which atoms are removed; "The solar wind protons must sputter away the surface atoms of the dust"
climb awkwardly, as if by scrambling [syn: clamber, scramble, shin, shinny, skin, struggle]
utter with a spitting sound, as if in a rage [syn: splutter]
Usage examples of "sputter".
Stirred by towers that poke above the host of city lightintense white carbide lamps, smoke-burnished red of lit grease, tallow twinkling, frenetic sputtering gas flare, all anarchic guards against the darkthe winds rejoice and play.
That did not appear to mollify the padres, still fizzing and sputtering.
And when at last they reached the trench, those farthest on the left of the advancing Britishers heard a machine gun sputter suddenly before them and saw a huge lion leap over the German parados with the body of a screaming Hun soldier between his jaws and vanish into the shadows of the night, while squatting upon a traverse to their left was Tarzan of the Apes with a machine gun before him with which he was raking the length of the German trenches.
While his electric arc sputtered its rain of minute drops, another worker close by plated another disk with granulated silver by-passed into an exoacetylene flame and thus blast-driven into the preheated surface.
Before him, Ranunculus rasped and sputtered, the skin of his bearded face turning purple.
Ineptly smothering his own sputtering guffaws, Joe frantically thrust up his hands, again wiggling the fingertips for silence.
At last I broke the surface, sputtering and coughing, so weak I could barely swim to shore.
In the perimeter lights I saw dozens of diminutive men and women in black pajamas scurrying about, white stars sputtering from the muzzles of their weapons.
Tanalasta burst into fresh tears, a short shower that ended in a lopsided, sputtering smile.
She rode his legs, and with brutal efficiency drove the drill bit through his kneecap, the drill whining and sputtering, bringing up flakes of white bone, and black blood, driving it in until the drill chuck touched his jeans.
He shook some of the soap under the sputtering pump, swirled the cold water to make suds.
Isaac and Yagharek, and stepped out of the darkened alley into the sputtering firelight in front of the houses.
Leroy was sputtering in excitement, and the Martian kept his vicious beak directed at us, so I stepped forward as peace-maker.
Across the sand, clear for an instant against the white ground coral of the beach, the figure of the small devil with the half-human posture showed, and a malevolent sputtering snarl sounded.
A vehicle went sputtering and popping by on the road as they kowtowed.