pattering

Verb (1)

patter (third-person singular simple present patters, present participle pattering, simple past and past participle pattered)

1. To make irregularly repeated sounds of low-to-moderate magnitude and lower-than-average pitch.
   • The bullets pattered into the log-cabin walls.
2. To spatter; to sprinkle.
   • 1819 (published in 1835) Joseph Rodman Drake, The Culprit Fay
     Patter the water about the boat.

Verb (2)

patter (third-person singular simple present patters, present participle pattering, simple past and past participle pattered)

1. To speak glibly and rapidly, as does an auctioneer or a sports commentator.
   • He showed a little of the pride of art in describing the management of his business, but he would not hear that he “pattered:” he talked to his customers, he declared, as any draper, who knew his business well, might talk to his.1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor; […], volume I (The London Street-folk. Book the First.), London: [George Woodfall], →OCLC, page 379
2. (intransitive, obsolete) To repeat the Lord's Prayer.
3. (intransitive, obsolete) To pray.
4. (obsolete, transitive) To repeat hurriedly; to mutter.

See all 9 meanings of patter