SCATTER • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Scatter

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/skˈætər/ Listen

verb

Scatter v. t. (past & past part. scattered; pres. part. scattering)

To strew about; to sprinkle around; to throw down loosely; to deposit or place here and there, esp. in an open or sparse order. "And some are scattered all the floor about." "Why should my muse enlarge on Libyan swains, Their scattered cottages, and ample plains?" "Teach the glad hours to scatter, as they fly, Soft quiet, gentle love, and endless joy."

To cause to separate in different directions; to reduce from a close or compact to a loose or broken order; to dissipate; to disperse. "Scatter and disperse the giddy Goths."

Hence, to frustrate, disappoint, and overthrow; as, to scatter hopes, plans, or the like.

Synonyms: To disperse; dissipate; spread; strew.

Scatter v. i. To be dispersed or dissipated; to disperse or separate; as, clouds scatter after a storm.

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Etymology of 'Scatter'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Scatter" Quotes from Famous Books

... or another as favour determined or conjecture wandered. It was given, says Warburton, to every man except him only who could write it. Those who like only when they like the author, and who are under the dominion of a name, condemned it, and those admired it who are willing to scatter praise at random, which, while it is unappropriated, excites no envy. Those friends of Pope that were trusted with the secret went about lavishing honours on the new-born poet, and hinting that Pope was never so ...

— Lives of the English Poets: Prior, Congreve, Blackmore, Pope • Samuel Johnson

... And he said, These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that none lifted up his head; but these are come to terrify them, to strike down the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it. ...

— The Makers and Teachers of Judaism • Charles Foster Kent

... attack, which demands on our part a corresponding concert of action." "Let the stand taken be had in universal and everlasting remembrance, and we shall soon get the enemy out of the camp." "Wake up, ministers, form conspiracies against error, and scatter firebrands in the enemy's camp." "A schism in our ranks, with the enemy before and behind us, would indeed be confusion in the camp." "It is the moment to charge as Wellington did at Waterloo." "Will Walker and his friends feel as if my gun was loaded deep enough for the first shot, ...

— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 91, May, 1865 • Various

... doubt—and desirable to die in. But I do not know their Gods, and they ask for money; and when one has done one worship a shaved-head vows it is of none effect except one do another. Wash here! Wash there! Pour, drink, lave, and scatter flowers—but always pay the priests. No, the Punjab for me, and the soil of the Jullundur-doab for the best soil ...

— Kim • Rudyard Kipling

... workings of whose features showed that he was becoming frightfully agitated. "You know that she is against me. Listen to your own heart—what does it say? It speaks to you of my love for you, of your own love for me. Darling, you know how miserable my life has been. Are you going to scatter all my hopes again and plunge me down in the depths of gloom? And all for what? To satisfy a worldly scruple. It is not even as if I had been brought up in my early years in the station to which my father belonged. I have never known him—never known any relations but the Brands; and they ...

— A True Friend - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant

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