Dictionary

spattery en · ADJ

Etymology

From spatter + -y.

Meanings

1. Accompanied or caused by spattering.
   • The rain went plop into the pools, and made a flattish, spattery sound on the rock. 1920, Edith Ballinger Price, chapter 9, in Us and the Bottle Man, New York: Century, page 107:
   • And the spattery gale that has knocked over parking signs and everted umbrellas all morning suddenly quits an hour before match time […] 2006, David Foster Wallace, “Federer Both Flesh and Not”, in Both Flesh and Not, Boston: Little, Brown, published 2012:
   • On a raw wintry morning, a watermill may talk of damp and rats, and other comfortless things; but on such a day as this is, its cool gushing sound and spattery playfulness are delicious both to ear and eye. 1837, Mary Boddington, chapter 2, in Sketches in the Pyrenees, volume 1, London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, page 27:
2. Covered with or in the form of spatters.
   • […] he traced upon the paper, slowly, awkwardly, but without stopping once, a tangle of heavy, shaken, spattery lines, in which could nevertheless be recognized the signature of “Tarbox Button.” 1874, Frederic B. Perkins, Scrope; or, The Lost Library, Boston: Roberts Brothers, Chapter , p. 256:
   • From where they sat they could see a spattery shimmer of moonlight on the water […] 1981, Manly Wade Wellman, “Nobody Ever Goes There”, in John the Balladeer, New York: Baen Books, page 222:

Forms