Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use patter in a sentence

25 example sentences · noun, verb

Patter means a soft repeated sound, as of rain falling, or feet walking on a hard surface. Example: “I could hear the patter of mice running about in the dark.”

Examples of patter by meaning

nounA soft repeated sound, as of rain falling, or feet walking on a hard surface.

  • I could hear the patter of mice running about in the dark.
  • The patter of feet, and clatter of strap and swivel, seemed to swell into a bewildering din, but they were almost upon the fielato offices, where the carretera entered the town, before a rifle flashed.1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC

verbTo make irregularly repeated sounds of low-to-moderate magnitude and lower-than-average pitch.

  • The bullets pattered into the log-cabin walls.

nounGlib and rapid speech, such as from an auctioneer, a stage magician, a sports commentator, or a salesperson with a...

  • All a jock needs is some hep patter and a real gone image.1975, Garry Marshall et al., “Richie's Flip Side”, in Happy Days, season 2, episode 21, spoken by Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard)
  • Yeah, that's what it says.” “By the way, you're really gonna have to work on your patter a little bit.”2010 April 7, Kevin Shinick, “Blob Gets Job” (16:32 from the start), in Ugly Americans, season 1, episode 4, spoken by Mark Lilly (Matt...

nounOne who pats.

  • I used to hate head patters, and I have realized that all children dislike being patted on the head.1981, Jackie Cooper, Richard Kleiner, Please Shoot Dog, page 50

More sentences with patter

  • Hey 'bantz' merchants, your patter is offensive and not even puerile enough to be considered comedy.2014 May 2, Daisy Buchanan, “My five-point plan to ban banter”, in The Guardian. From the entry bantz
  • Manx shearwaters lounge on the sheeny swell before pattering along and coasting away on stiff, elongated wings.2006, James Lowen, A Summer of British Wildlife, page 141. From the entry Manx shearwater
  • I was much too timid and didn't have the cheap-jack’s boasting patter.1999, “IV.8”, in Mike Mitchell, transl., Simplicissimus, Dedalus, translation of original by HJC von Grimmelshausen, published 2016, page…. From the entry cheapjack
  • Well, tinkety-tonk, then, for the moment," said his lordship, and pattered off down the stairs.1927, P. G. Wodehouse, The Small Bachelor. From the entry tinkety-tonk
  • Outside there was the soft patter of summer rain and the sky was pale with the rising, cloudwashed sun.1992, Philippa Gregory, The Wise Woman, Touchstone, published 2008, →ISBN, page 449. From the entry cloudwashed
  • The psychological patter of the '70s is as inescapable as Muzak and just as numbing: Are you relating?1977 October 3, “Behavior: Psychobabble”, in Time, retrieved 08 Dec 2019. From the entry do one's own thing
  • “Wait a minute!” The undergrowth at the side of the scar was shaken and a multitude of raindrops fell pattering.1954, William Golding, chapter 1, in Lord of the Flies, Penguin. From the entry scar
  • Impressing them as pattering rain upon a Rhino's hide, Or like the Mistrail's hail affects the rocky mountain side.1912, Seymour Supercern, Truth Will Out: An Emergence from Chaos and Subterfuge Into Light and Reality, page 49. From the entry mistrail
  • Scientists have used bioacoustics—a subfield of ecology that relies on sound to make environmental analyses—for studying bats from afar, dolphin communication patters and more.2024, Meghie Rodrigues, “The song of a missing bird may help scientists find it”, in Science News, page 4. From the entry bioacoustics
  • Teachout has a gift for slicing through the bafflegab and revealing that the grifter's patter disguises nothing more than unimaginative, sociopathic scams.2020 July 29, Cory Doctorow, “Break 'Em Up”, in Pluralistic, retrieved 02 Aug 2020. From the entry bafflegab
  • If you don't have time to watch the show itself, here is a taste of Stephen Fry's hosting patter: "the creamily edible Rosamund Pike".2015 September 2, Ali Plumb, “BAFTAs 2015: The Winners In Full”, in Empire. From the entry contrafibularities
  • Outside, a wind from the south had picked up, a thawing wind that quickened the patter of snowmelt on the back patio.2001, Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections. From the entry snowmelt
  • The Same Spade talk-alike, super-cynical heroine of the piece is named Emma Victor, and there's no end to her rapid-fire, monotonic, street-smart patter.1988 December 11, Georgia Cotrell, “A Lezbeen Sam Spade”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 22, page 8. From the entry monotonic
  • They did it by shooting from the lip, dauntlessly laying down a crossfire of patter that is often more fizzle than sizzle.1967 June 20, “Television: Mothers' Brothers”, in Time, retrieved 10 May 2018. From the entry shoot from the lip
  • But the pattering of the rain against the glass door of the balcony was so intense and unsettling that for a brief moment, I experienced chrysalism.2021, Nishita Patil, MEET YOURSELF, SpotWrite Publications, page 12. From the entry ambedo
  • Creaking leather and the snorting of mules, snatches of off-key ballads, the clop of hooves and the patter of bare soles, the rattle of hayforks and lances.2007 March 18, Michael Chabon, “‘Gentlemen of the Road’”, in New York Times. From the entry hayfork
  • The soft tumbling patter of four-footed steps clumpered up behind the girl and the hobgoblin, and Chester walked up and sat between them, watching the bitter, bouncing boy.2005, JT Petty, Clemency Pogue: Fairy Killer, page 73. From the entry clumper
  • “Say hello to old Stanley,” he called as she pattered down the steps into the street, flung a babushka over her license plate and screeched away down Telegraph.1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 5, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 79. From the entry babushka
  • Tragically, as cultures were conquered by new religions and their old wisdom-keepers persecuted, most of this oral soundlore was lost—forcibly forgotten, or buried beneath the new priesthood's patter and Babel.2008, Dixie Deerman, Steve Rasmussen, The Goodly Spellbook: Olde Spells for Modern Problems. From the entry soundlore

Meaning of patter

  1. noun A soft repeated sound, as of rain falling, or feet walking on a hard surface.
  2. verb To make irregularly repeated sounds of low-to-moderate magnitude and lower-than-average pitch.
  3. verb To spatter; to sprinkle.

Full definition of patter

Questions about patter in a sentence

How do you use patter in a sentence?
Patter is used as a noun and verb. For example: “I could hear the patter of mice running about in the dark.”
What is a short sentence with patter?
“The bullets pattered into the log-cabin walls.”
What does patter mean?
Patter means a soft repeated sound, as of rain falling, or feet walking on a hard surface.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: patter (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use patter in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/patter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.