sputter
US/ˈspʌtɚ/
sputter noun: moist matter thrown out in small detached particles.
Noun
sputter (countable and uncountable, plural sputters)
Verb
sputter (third-person singular simple present sputters, present participle sputtering, simple past and past participle sputtered)
- To emit saliva or spit from the mouth in small, scattered portions, as in rapid speaking.
- The child [...] kicked, and crowed, and sputtered, when his mother took him, and put up his little fingers to clutch her hair, and was to her as a young god upon the earth. Nothing in the world had ever been created so beautiful, so joyous, so satisfactory, so divine!1869 May, Anthony Trollope, “Lady Milborough as Ambassador”, in He Knew He Was Right, volume I, London: Strahan and Company, […], →OCLC, page 87
- To speak so rapidly as to emit saliva; to utter words hastily and indistinctly, with a spluttering sound, as in rage.
- They could neither of them speak their rage, and so fell a sputtering at one another, like two roasting apples.1700, William Congreve, The Way of the World
- In the midst of caresses, and without the least pretended incitement, to sputter out the basest and falsest accusations.1730, Jonathan Swift, A Vindication of Lord Carteret
- To throw out anything, as little jets of steam, with a noise like that made by one sputtering.
- Like the green wood [...] sputtering in the flame.1692, John Dryden, Cleomenes, the Spartan Hero, a Tragedy
- Synonyms:
- stutter
- To cause surface atoms or electrons of a solid to be ejected by bombarding it with heavy atoms or ions.
- To coat the surface of an object by sputtering.
sputter meaning in Tamil and Kannada
sputter in Tamil
- சுறுசுறெனல், சிதறித் தெறித்தல், தெறித்தல், பிதற்றல்
sputter in Kannada
- ಒದರಾಡು, ಸಿಡಿಸು, ಉಗೞ್, ಉಗುೞ್, ಚರಚರನೆ ಬಿಸಿಯಾಗು
Examples of sputter in a sentence
- The racecar's cammed out engine raspily loped and sputtered as it waited for the green light.
- The motor bucked and sputtered before dying completely.
- Brobot did not sputter , cough , wheeze , or SPLORK !
Synonyms of sputter
Forms of sputter
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | sputters |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | sputters |
| present participle | sputtering |
| past participle | sputtered |
| past | sputtered |
Origin of sputter
Probably representing Middle English *sputren, *sputrien, a frequentative form of Middle English sputen (“to spout, vomit”), equivalent to spout + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian spüttern (“to inject, spray, splash”), West Frisian sputterje (“to sputter”), Dutch sputteren (“to sputter”), Low German sputtern, spruttern (“to sprinkle”), German sprudeln (“to spout, squirt”). Compare splutter.
Words formed from sputter
Phrases with sputter
Words that rhyme with sputter
Questions about sputter
- What does sputter mean?
- Sputter means moist matter thrown out in small detached particles.
- What is sputter in Tamil?
- Sputter in Tamil is சுறுசுறெனல், சிதறித் தெறித்தல், தெறித்தல். See Sputter meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is sputter?
- Sputter can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce sputter?
- Sputter is pronounced /ˈspʌtɚ/ (US).
- What is the plural of sputter?
- The plural of sputter is sputters.
Words near sputter in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sputter (page history and authors); sputter (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sputter (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-sputter.wav.
Cite this entry: “sputter.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sputter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.