▪ I. splutter, n.
(ˈsplʌtə(r))
[Imitative: cf. sputter n. Noted by Johnson as ‘a low word’.]
1. A noise or fuss.
| 1677 Miége Fr. Dict. ii, To keep a great splutter,..faire grand bruit. 1711 Swift Jrnl. to Stella 8 Sept., What a splutter you keep, to convince me that Walls has no taste! 1735 Burdon Pocket-Farrier 70 What a splutter has Mr. Solleysell made in his Works. 1809 T. Donaldson Poems 33 Your comrades, Davie, when you're dead, May raise an unco' splutter. 1893 in S.E. Worcester Gloss. 37. |
b. Violent and confused declamation, discourse, or talk; an instance of this.
| 1688 Vox Cleri Pro Rege 6 After all this Splutter at the Churchmen and Clergy of England, he falls next to shoot his angry Bolts at the Collection. 1791 A. Wilson in Poems & Lit. Prose (1876) II. 35 For gudesake whist!.. Its nonsense a' this splutter. 1868 Swinburne Blake 15 The only original work of its author..consisting mainly of mere wind and splutter. 1881 Huxley in L. Huxley Life II. 33 Dinner..with a confused splutter of German to the neighbours on my right. |
c. A controversy or dispute.
| 1838 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. I. 109 He has had a splutter with Leigh Hunt. |
2. A loud or violent sputter or splash.
| 1815 Scott Guy M. i, About a rood of the simple masonry giving way in the splutter with which he passed. 1841 Dickens Barn. Rudge iv, Until, with great foam and froth and splutter, it would force a vent, and carry all before it. 1873 G. C. Davies Mount. & Mere ix. 68 A couple of ducks..made away with a great splutter. |
| fig. 1821 Lamb Elia i. Old Benchers Inn. Temple, Is the splutter of their hot rhetoric one half so refreshing and innocent as the little cool playful streams [etc.]? 1887 [see spitfire n. 1 b]. |
▪ II. splutter, v.
(ˈsplʌtə(r))
[f. prec.]
1. trans. To utter hastily and indistinctly. Also const. out.
| 1729 T. Cooke Tales, etc. 119 Call them, without Reserve, Dog, Monkey, Owl, And splutter out at once Fish, Flesh, and Fowl. 1826 Lamb Pop. Fallacies vii, When he has been spluttering excellent broken sense for an hour together. 1850 G. H. Boker Anne Boleyn i. iii, And then shake heaven with angel merriment To hear you splutter—‘Lord, all this is ours!’ 1879 Thornbury Tour rd. Eng. II. xx. 62 King James spluttered out his alarm at Jesuit plots in clumsy Latin. |
2. a. To scatter in small splashes.
| 1835 Politen. & Gd.-breed. 66 If you are eating soup, take care not to splutter it about. 1853 R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour xlii. 232 Twirling the pen between his fingers, and spluttering the ink over the paper. |
b. To bespatter (a person). Also fig.
| a 1869 C. Spence Fr. Braes Carse Poems (1898) 196 Ae jaw⁓hole [will] splutter fifty folk. 1901 N. & Q. 9th Ser. VIII. 401/1 His pen was busy spluttering detractors. |
3. intr. To talk or speak hastily and confusedly.
| 1728 De Foe Mem. Capt. Carleton 64 There came in a Dutchman, spluttering and making a great Noise, that he was sure he could discover one of the Conspirators. 1828 Carr Craven Gloss., Splutter, to speak fast and inarticulately. 1881 Besant & Rice Chapl. of Fleet ii. xx. (1883) 279 He could not even swear. He could only splutter. |
4. To make a sputtering sound or sounds.
| 1818 Scott Rob Roy vii, You may see Jobson on such occasions..puffing, strutting, and spluttering, to get the Justice put in motion. 1860 Thackeray Round. Papers, Autour de mon Chapeau, Dawn, it may be, rises unheeded;..while waning candles splutter in the sockets. 1878 A. Brassey Voy. Sunbeam 17 A dozen of them spluttering and fighting for the coin in the water at the same time. |
b. To go out with a sputter.
| 1906 Treves Highways Dorset xii. 183 The attempt spluttered out like an over-fed candle. |
5. Of a pen: To scatter ink in writing.
| 1837 Dickens Pickw. xxxiii, A hard-nibbed pen which could be warranted not to splutter. 1863 M. E. Braddon J. Marchmont II. iv. 90 You see if my pen doesn't splutter, the moment I address Richard Paulette. |
6. To fly in small splashes or pieces.
| 1849 Lytton Caxtons 17 The fragments spluttered up round my father's legs. 1862 Gifts & Graces xv. 156 She dropped her fat round cake..right into her cup of tea, the contents of which spluttered all over her bonnet-ribbons. |
▪ III. † splutter, int. Obs.
[Perversion of God's blood: see god n. 14 a and Cuts1.]
A form of oath, usually attributed to Welshmen. Also Splutterdenails (= blood and nails).
| 1719 D'Urfey Pills (1872) V. 7 Welch Taffy he raves and crys Splutterdenails. 1731 Fielding Grub St. Op. iii. xiv, Mr. Puzzletext, you are not mad, I hope? Puz. Splutter! my lady, but I am. 1748 Smollett Rod. Rand. xxv, Splutter and oons! you lousy tog, who do you call my master? |