SPUTTERING • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Sputtering

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/spˈətərɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Sputter 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."

Sputter v. i. (past & past part. sputtered; pres. part. sputtering)

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."

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."

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Etymology of 'Sputtering'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Sputtering" Quotes from Famous Books

... just finished five strenuous years in the Cabinet of the Slav Republic, dropped back a step to watch, with amused eyes, strolling through the doorway, the two splendid old boys, the Judge's arm around the Senator's shoulders, fighting, sputtering, arguing with each other as they had fought and argued forty odd years ...

— Joy in the Morning • Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews

... lying down, and there were tiny lamps sputtering on the low stools, or tables, set close to their heads. They held long-stemmed pipes with small brass bowls, and had begun to smoke something that had a very pungent ...

— Ruth Fielding on the St. Lawrence - The Queer Old Man of the Thousand Islands • Alice B. Emerson

... against their ponies' necks and, those who could use their arms at all, pumping wild shots that whistled harmless over the heads of the defenders and bit the blackened prairie many a rod beyond. Only jeers rewarded the stirring spectacle,—jeers and a few low-aimed, sputtering volleys that brought other luckless ponies to their knees and sprawled a few red riders. But in less than five minutes from the warning cry that hailed their coming, Lame Wolf and his hosts were lining Elk Tooth ridge and ...

— A Daughter of the Sioux - A Tale of the Indian frontier • Charles King

... and struck a match on his sleeve, but it broke short off at the head, and the sputtering sulphur dropped into the stream and was quenched. He struck another, this time with success. He saw the heading; the way was clear; and he started on, holding one hand out before him, touching at frequent intervals the lower wall of the passage with ...

— Burnham Breaker • Homer Greene

... of the Ohio over his face, and night closed in with dark, low hanging clouds. An electric storm began to rage about him. Flashing sheets of lightning ran over the surface of the water, cracking and sputtering as though angry at his presence. It was a grand, though fearful sight. Tree after tree along the shore was splintered by the sharp flashes and peals of thunder added to the terrific grandeur of nature's display. Fearing that his copper bugle would ...

— The Story of Paul Boyton - Voyages on All the Great Rivers of the World • Paul Boyton

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