smatter

To make (someone or something) dirty; to bespatter, to soil.

To ſay the Ieſuites are all ſmattred vvith Atheiſme, I vvill not: and to ſay, that any of them all are abſolutely ſcotfree from it, I cannot: it is ſo repugnant from their ovvne principles.

[I]f euer you ſee father Parſons booke of intended Reformation, you vvill finde roome ynough to put in more odious ſtuffe then I haue handled, or am vvilling to ſmatter my pen vvithall.

To hit (someone or something) with a liquid; to splash, to spatter.

To approach or study (something, such as a subject) superficially; to dabble in.

I have smattered law, smattered letters, smattered geography, smattered mathematics; I have even a working knowledge of judicial astrology; and here I stand, all London roaring by at the street's end, as impotent as any baby.

To speak (a language or words) with only a superficial knowledge of it.

The Barber ſmatters latin, I remember.

All this, vvithout a Gloſs or Comment, / He vvould unriddle in a moment / In proper terms, ſuch as men ſmatter / VVhen they throvv out and miſs the matter.

To hit with a liquid; to splash, to spatter.

Synonym of smattering.

[A]ll other Sciences, they vvere in a manner extinguiſh'd during the Courſe of this Empire, excepting only a Smatter of Judicial Aſtrology, by vvhich, under the Name of Chaldeans, ſome of that Race long amazed ignorant and credulous People.

Synonym of smattering.

a smatter of applause

[H]e can pray, and tell long Scrifts of Greek, / And broken Smatters of the Hebrevv ſpeak; / And in the Latin he is nicely read; / Can ſcrape and jouk; then is not he vvell bred?