sputter

UK /ˈspʌtɚ/ US /ˈspʌtɚ/
verb 5noun 2

Definitions

noun

1

Moist matter thrown out in small detached particles.

2

Confused and hasty speech.

verb

1

To emit saliva or spit from the mouth in small, scattered portions, as in rapid speaking.

The child [...] kicked, and crowed, and sputtered, when his mother took him, and put up his little fingers to clutch her hair, and was to her as a young god upon the earth. Nothing in the world had ever been created so beautiful, so joyous, so satisfactory, so divine!

2

To speak so rapidly as to emit saliva; to utter words hastily and indistinctly, with a spluttering sound, as in rage.

They could neither of them speak their rage, and so fell a sputtering at one another, like two roasting apples.

In the midst of caresses, and without the least pretended incitement, to sputter out the basest and falsest accusations.

3

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.

4

To cause surface atoms or electrons of a solid to be ejected by bombarding it with heavy atoms or ions.

5

To coat the surface of an object by sputtering.

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