SPUTTERING • DICTIONARY ONE.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

... their conventionally five-pointed counterfeits of silver paper. A brisk wind whirled a few dried leaves in whispering eddies across the smooth asphaltum of the driveway, but beyond this and the peevish sputtering of the arc-light on the opposite corner there was no sound. It was the kind of night which, with its crystal clearness and its steely intensity, stirs the normal pulse to keen exhilaration: yet never had ...

— The Lieutenant-Governor • Guy Wetmore Carryl

... sputtering and gasping, shaking the dust in clouds from his long linen coat. Jake, who always said he lived on dust and heat, averred it was not exactly a regular fine day. Lenore looked out, trying to get a breath of air. Nash busied ...

— The Desert of Wheat • Zane Grey

... whiff of burnt syrup, she hurried to the kitchen, where she found that her berries had boiled over, and were hissing and sputtering on the hot stove, raising a cloud of smoke so dense that she did not see the person who stood on the threshold of the door until a voice wholly unlike that of any peddler or agent ...

— Tracy Park • Mary Jane Holmes

... with a mocking laugh Victorine bounded down the staircase and went into the kitchen. Her grandfather was running about there in great confusion, from dresser to fireplace, to table, to pantry, back and forth, breathless and red in the face. The pigeons were sputtering before the fire, and the odor of the frying ...

— Between Whiles • Helen Hunt Jackson

... off, with a great sputtering of his engine, and Frank and Harry rode along quietly. But Frank felt ...

— The Boy Scouts on the Trail • George Durston

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