smattereth

Verb

smatter (third-person singular simple present smatters, present participle smattering, simple past and past participle smattered)

1. (also, figuratively, obsolete, transitive) To make (someone or something) dirty; to bespatter, to soil.
   • To ſay the Ieſuites are all ſmattred vvith Atheiſme, I vvill not: and to ſay, that any of them all are abſolutely ſcotfree from it, I cannot: it is ſo repugnant from their ovvne principles.1602, William Watson, “The IIII. Article”, in A Decacordon of Ten Quodlibeticall Questions Concerning Religion and State: […], [London]: […] [Richard Field], →OCLC, page 110

   Synonyms:

   assoil, beclart, bedaub, bedirty, imbrue (especially with blood), bedizen, befile, befilth, befoul, begrime

2. (US, broadly, transitive) To hit (someone or something) with a liquid; to splash, to spatter.
3. (figuratively, transitive) To approach or study (something, such as a subject) superficially; to dabble in.
   • I have smattered law, smattered letters, smattered geography, smattered mathematics; I have even a working knowledge of judicial astrology; and here I stand, all London roaring by at the street's end, as impotent as any baby.1885, Robert Louis Stevenson, Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson, “Prologue of the Cigar Divan”, in More New Arabian Nights: The Dynamiter, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, pages 4–5
4. (figuratively, transitive) To speak (a language or words) with only a superficial knowledge of it.
   • The Barber ſmatters latin, I remember.1609 December (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Epicoene, or The Silent Woman. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby...
5. (US, intransitive) To hit with a liquid; to splash, to spatter.
6. (figuratively, intransitive) To have a slight, superficial knowledge of something; to dabble.
   • He ſmattereth a lytell of the lawe: […]1530 July 28 (Gregorian calendar), Iohan Palsgraue [i.e., John Palsgrave], “The Table of Verbes”, in Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse⸝ […], [London]: […] [Richard Pynson] fynnysshed by Iohan...

See all 9 meanings of smatter