How to use spatter in a sentence

29 example sentences · verb, noun

Spatter means to splash (someone or something) with small droplets. Example: “When my wet chihuahua shook himself, I was spattered with smelly water.”

Examples of spatter by meaning

verbTo splash (someone or something) with small droplets.

When my wet chihuahua shook himself, I was spattered with smelly water.
He blew too hard and the tea spattered the skirt of Nurse Clock’s uniform.1965, William Trevor, chapter 8, in The Boarding House, King Penguin, published 1983, page 85

verbTo distribute (a liquid) by sprinkling; to sprinkle around.

to spatter blood
Streaks of DeHaven’s real face can be seen through the trademark face as the clown slams the hood shut in the spattered rain.1989, David Foster Wallace, “Westward the course of empire takes its way”, in Girl with Curious Hair

verbTo send out or disperse (something) as if in droplets.

The cabman spattered his few words of English.1922, D. H. Lawrence, chapter 12, in Aaron’s Rod, London: Martin Secker, page 139

verbTo send out small droplets; to splash in small droplets (on or against something).

Make sure the pieces of fish are dry before you put them into the hot oil so that it doesn’t spatter.
Where the headquarters tent sags, water drips down and spatters on the table.1956, Langston Hughes, chapter 8, in I Wonder as I Wander, New York: Hill and Wang, published 1993, page 374

nounA spray or shower of droplets hitting a surface.

Her feet sent back a continual spatter of mud.1913, Willa Cather, O Pioneers!, Part 5, Chapter 1

nounA spot or spots of a substance spattered on a surface.

There was what looked like a spatter of blood on one wall.

nounThe sound of droplets hitting a surface.

As Henry lay awake that first night the hiss and spatter of the rain against his window seemed to have a personal grudge against him.1917, Hugh Walpole, The Green Mirror, New York: George H. Doran, Book 3, Chapter 3, p. 344

nounA burst or series of sounds resembling the sound of droplets hitting a surface.

The rapid handing out of the diplomas brought frequent applause—bits, spatters, volleys, as the case might be.1919, Henry Blake Fuller, chapter 32, in Bertram Cope’s Year
He went through the darkened parlor with its low early evening spatter of conversation.1952, John Steinbeck, chapter 48, in East of Eden, New York: Penguin, published 1981, page 606

More sentences with spatter

A spout of blood flew from his mouth, spattering Smichov's linen trousers.2010, James Fleming, Cold Blood, page 160. From the entry spout
He’s compensating you for an injury, not for purchasing your spattered unwearables.2009 January 25, Randy Cohen, “Truth in Suspension”, in New York Times. From the entry unwearable
Sometimes the spatters extend a significant distance above other painted figures.2001, James D. Keyser, Michael Klassen, Plains Indian Rock Art, →ISBN, page 161. From the entry painted
A hard November wind is spattering goopy sleet against the broad windows all around the hall.1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 361. From the entry goopy
He'd been shot at point-blank range and expected to find the back of his head blown apart: bone fragments, spattered brains.2008, Craig Davidson, The Fighter, Soho Press, →ISBN. From the entry donkey punched
He has no business in these political orders of magnitude, where erroneous loyalties can get your brain spattered over hotel bedrooms.2004, David Mitchell, “Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery”, in Cloud Atlas, →ISBN, page 128. From the entry explorer
A brief rainshower falling on the smooth surface of fine-grained sediment spatters it with tiny crater-like pittings known as rain prints.1993, P. M. Duff, Holmes' Principles of Physical Geology. From the entry rainshower
Today savvy operators and designers are stenciling, streaking, stippling, spattering, sponging, mirroring, muraling and marbleizing their way to wonderful walls.1987, Cahners Publishing Company, Restaurants & Institutions, Volume 97, Issues 5-7. From the entry mural
This slurry is thrown hard, or spattered, against the smooth block or concrete surface, and then allowed to harden.1986, John van Winden, Wolfram Pforte, Fritz Hoherlein, Rural Building: Basic Knowledge, volume 2, page 178. From the entry spatterdash
At the time of the police investigation, the only “artwork” found were pre-Pollackesque spatters of blood on the previously pristine white walls.2005, Ronnie Burkett, Provenance, page 21. From the entry Pollackesque
A variety of suitable methods for surface inspection are available to detect topographical defects induced by surface roughnesses such as scratches, digs, inclusions and spatters.2003, Klaus Bange, “Surfaces of Substrate Glasses”, in Thin Films on Glass, Springer Science & Business Media, page 101. From the entry roughness
A massive POLICE CAPTAIN, spattered with gold braid and scrambled eggs on his hat, with beefy red face and white hair seems furious.1971, Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather (screenplay, third draft). From the entry scrambled egg
This week she has been appearing in a white satin petticoat much spattered with rosettes veiled with black maline and over-hung by a glitterful tunic.1915 April 30, “With the Women”, in Variety, volume XXXVIII, number 9, New York, N.Y., page 7, column 4. From the entry glitterful
Jade distinguished between using what he called "oozles" of clean water to make runs within a painted area and spattering color over an area to create textures.1985, Ernest William Watson, Arthur Leighton Guptill, American Artist - Volume 49, page 83. From the entry oozle
Thirty had been exposed by accidentally sticking themselves with needles containing blood and three had been spattered or had an open wound exposed to potentially infective blood.1984 December 29, Christine Guilfoy, “Health Worker's AIDS Prompts Investigation”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 25, page 2. From the entry infective
Two new molded fiber-glass plastic headshields for weldors are reported to offer the user lighter weight comfort with complete head protection from the welding arc and spatter.1955, The Welding Engineer, volume 40, page 50. From the entry weldor
The weekend parties, which feature thong-clad girls writhing on stripper poles, are hip enough to pull in a mix of faux-hawks, bridge-and-tunnel singles, celesbians, and even a spattering of boys.2006 March 13, “Best Lesbian Bar”, in New York, volume 39, numbers 8–14, page 84. From the entry celesbian

Meaning of spatter

verb To splash (someone or something) with small droplets.
verb To cover, or lie upon (something) by having been scattered, as if by splashing.
verb To distribute (a liquid) by sprinkling; to sprinkle around.

Full definition of spatter

Questions about spatter in a sentence

How do you use spatter in a sentence?: Spatter is used as a verb and noun. For example: “When my wet chihuahua shook himself, I was spattered with smelly water.”
What is a short sentence with spatter?: “to spatter blood”
What does spatter mean?: Spatter means to splash (someone or something) with small droplets.

Adapted from Wiktionary: spatter (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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