[= Du. sputteren, WFris. sputterje, NFris. sputteri, spūtere, of imitative origin.]
1. trans. To spit out in small particles and with a characteristic explosive sound or a series of such sounds. Also in fig. context.
1598, 1602. [see SPUTTERING ppl. a. 1].
1697. Dryden, Æneid, II. 279. Two serpents … lick’d their hissing jaws, that sputter’d flame.
1720. Pope, Iliad, XXIII. 921. Thus sourly wail’d he, sputt’ring dirt and gore.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, XXIII. 972. He grasp’d his horn, and sputt’ring as he stood The ordure forth, the Argives thus bespake.
1835. T. Mitchell, Aristoph. Acharn., 1041, note. A habit which he had of sputtering his saliva on bystanders.
b. transf. To scatter, throw up or about, in small particles.
1845. S. Judd, Margaret, I. xvii. One [sled] went giddying round and round, fraying and sputtering the snow, and dashed against a tree.
2. To utter hastily and with the emission of small particles of saliva; to ejaculate in a confused, indistinct or uncontrolled manner, esp. from anger or excitement. Cf. SPLUTTER v. 1.
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm., Wks. 1716, I. 170. Nor out of … inadvertency should we sputter our reproachful speech.
1681. H. Nevile, Plato Rediv., 260. I have known some men so full of their own Notions, that they went up and down sputtering them in every Mans Face.
1753. Foote, Englishm. in Paris, I. Our pretty gentlemen … sputter nothing but bad French in the side-boxes at home.
1817. Byron, Beppo, xliv. Like our harsh northern whistling, grunting guttural, Which we’re obliged to hiss, and spit, and sputter all.
1841. Browning, Pippa Passes, Poems (1905), 169. So Luca … lives to sputter His fulsome dotage on you.
1891. S. C. Scrivener, Our Fields & Cities, 172. Don’t be a fool when you are talking to the managing clerk…, and go sputtering any of this rot to him.
b. With out.
1730. Swift, Vindic. Ld. Carteret, Wks. 1841, II. 113/2. Without the least pretended incitement [to] sputter out the basest and falsest accusations.
1783. Miss Burney, Early Diary (1889), II. 310. This speech he sputtered out just as if his mouth had been full of beef and pudding.
1877. Smith & Wace’s Dict. Chr. Biog., I. 469. Another desperate attempt to sputter out the guttural, Phthasuarsas, is found in Theophanes.
3. intr. Of persons: To eject from the mouth, to spit out, food or saliva in small particles with some force and in a noisy explosive manner.
1681. H. More, Expos. Dan., 285. The Welch-man … bit the Rine of the Orange into his mouth together with the Pulp, which made him sputter and make hard faces.
1683. Tryon, Way to Health, 305. They feed them till they sputter out of their Mouthes, and also cast it up.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. (Globe), 216. Putting a little [salt] into his own Mouth, he seem’d to nauseate it, and would spit and sputter at it.
1792. Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, V. VII. 319. Putting her face close to mine, and sputtering at every word from excessive eagerness.
1845. C. Whitehead, R. Savage, 350. As a child sputters and wawls when physic is forced upon it.
1878. P. Bayne, Purit. Rev., ii. 28. His tongue was too large for his mouth; he stuttered and sputtered.
4. To speak or talk hastily and confusedly or disjointedly.
Freq. with implication of prec. sense.
1681. T. Flatman, Heraclitus Ridens, No. 48 (1713), II. 53. He storms and sputters like—like any think.
1696. W. Mountagu, Holland, 4. The Servants … sputter’d in Dutch, which they understood not.
1730. Swift, Traulus, I. 9. Why must he sputter, spawl, and slaver it In vain against the People’s Fav’rite? Ibid., 63. Though he sputter through a session, It never makes the least impression.
1831. Trelawny, Adv. Younger Son, II. 160. Sputtering about the ignorance of womankind.
1852. H. Rogers, Eclipse of Faith, 167. They began to sputter at one another, on the supposition that each was mocking his neighbour.
1871. Tennyson, Last Tourn., 65. Then, sputtering thro’ the hedge of splinter’d teeth,… said the maim’d churl.
transf. 1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, vii. The sea-gull, which flutters, screams, and sputters most at the commencement of a gale of wind.
5. To make or give out a sputtering sound or sounds, esp. under the influence of heat.
1692. Dryden, Cleomenes, I. i. Like the Green Wood That sputtring in the Flame works outward into Tears.
1706. E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 79. Vex him then, and he shall swell and sputter like a roasted apple.
1866. Whittier, Snow-Bound, 172. The mug of cider simmered slow, The apples sputtered in a row.
fig. 1879. McCarthy, Own Times, xviii. II. 16. Chartism bubbled and sputtered a little yet in some of the provincial towns.
b. Of a candle, fire, etc. (Cf. the ppl. a. 2.)
1845. Alb. Smith, Fort. Scattergood Fam., xxxii. (1887), 109. The candle … was sputtering with the rain-drops.
1850. Dickens, Dav. Copp., xx. The newly-kindled fire crackled and sputtered.
1889. D. C. Murray, Dangerous Catspaw, 20. A gas jet, which shrieked and sputtered as he applied the match.
